June Willenz (1924–2020)

June Willenz, née Friedenberg, was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from high school at age 16, she studied at Brooklyn College before transferring to the University of Michigan. There she earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1945 and a master's degree in philosophy in 1947. She pursued doctoral studies in philosophy at The New School for Social Research in New York City, where she met her future husband Eric Willenz, a fellow student. They married in 1951 and had two daughters before divorcing. Ms. Willenz wrote a column for Stars and Stripes, taught at Montgomery College in Maryland, and was director of the research program at the U.S. Department of Labor's Special Project on Employment of Women Veterans. In 1965, she became the executive director of the American Veterans Committee (AVC), a position she held until the organization dissolved in 2003. She was the first female head of a veteran's organization in the USA, the first woman to head the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Task Force on Military/Veterans Affairs, and the first woman to chair a Presidential Subcommittee on Disabled Veterans. Ms. Willenz campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of and correct inequities in the veterans system. She also advocated for the rights and recognition of women veterans. She initiated the effort to build the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery and was the author of Women Veterans: America's Forgotten Heroines (1983). She was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame in 2011.