Mary Sennholz

Mary Sennholz (1913-2017)

Mrs. Sennholz graduated from the Altoona School of Commerce in 1932. She worked as executive secretary and court reporter for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. A few days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, she was offered a position in Washington, D.C., in the executive office of the President, where she managed a pool of secretaries, working with U.S. senators, congressmen, and high officials in the government. She served under two presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

Soon after the war, she joined Adlai Stevenson’s committee of American officials in London, England, preparing a way for a new world organization, the United Nations. She resigned her government position in 1947 and joined a “think tank,” the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. From that day forward, she was a staunch believer in freedom and free markets.

She studied piano and organ with the best teachers she could find in Washington and New York. In Washington, she played in many services conducted by the famous evangelist Peter Marshall at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. She attended George Washington University in Washington, and Fordham University and New York University in New York City, where she met her husband, Hans Sennholz.

The couple moved to Grove City, Pennsylvania, when her husband accepted a professorship at Grove City College.

In Grove City, Mrs. Sennholz served as organist and choir director of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church for seven years. Soon after resigning as church organist, she became organist for Grove City College, continuing for two years.

Mrs. Sennholz belonged to most of the women’s clubs in Grove City and has served them in various capacities.

She published four books: On Freedom and Free Enterprise (1956, 1994), Faith and Freedom: A Biographical Sketch of a Great American, J. Howard Pew (1975), Leonard Read: Philosopher of Freedom (1993), and Faith of Our Fathers (1997).

She has a son, Robert; daughter-in-law, Lyn; and two grandsons, Roland and Emil Sennholz. She helped to homeschool her two grandsons, teaching grammar, composition, and piano.

Mary Sennholz (1913-2017)

Mrs. Sennholz graduated from the Altoona School of Commerce in 1932. She worked as executive secretary and court reporter for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. A few days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, she was offered a position in Washington, D.C., in the executive office of the President, where she managed a pool of secretaries, working with U.S. senators, congressmen, and high officials in the government. She served under two presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

Soon after the war, she joined Adlai Stevenson’s committee of American officials in London, England, preparing a way for a new world organization, the United Nations. She resigned her government position in 1947 and joined a “think tank,” the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. From that day forw... Read more