Eleanor Bellows Pillsbury

Pillsbury was born in 1913 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She graduated from the Northrop Collegiate School and then received a bachelor's degree from Smith College.[1][2] Syracuse University Dean Eugenia Leonard advised "women college graduates to enter volunteer work rather than accept a salary," which Pillsbury followed.[2]

From 1950 to 1953 Pillsbury served as the president of Planned Parenthood. She helped create the International Planned Parenthood Federation and traveled to India to discuss the organization with Mahatma Gandhi.[1]

In 1951, she was youngest member of the initial group of women to serve on the Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. She also served on the Minneapolis Junior League and the Minnesota Research Council (part of the National Health Council).[2]

Pillsbury was awarded the Lasker Award by Planned Parenthood – World Population in 1952 for "her unique contribution to the well-being of American family life in our generation".[3]

She was the vice president of the American Red Cross and sat on its national board as an honorary member at the time of her death.[1][2]

She married Philip W. Pillsbury in 1934, and had two children. At Pillsbury baking contests, she served as a hostess, remarking that she was a "Den mother for all the contestants."[1] Pillsbury died in 1971 from cancer at her home in Wayzata, Minnesota.[1]

In 2000, the Women’s Refugee Commission established the Eleanor Bellows Pillsbury Fund for Reproductive Health Care and Rights for Adolescent Refugees to provide grants for adolescent reproductive health projects.[4]