Ethel Kesler worked as an Instructor of Physical Education for Women at OSC from 1953 to 1956, where she began with an annual salary of $3,800.. She was born in 1928, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She attended Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Physical Education in 1949, with a minor in biology. During her years there, she was a member of Sigma Delta Pi, and graduated magna cum laude. For her graduate degree, she attended Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where she received her Master of Science in Hygiene and Physical Education. While there, she wrote a thesis on the “History of Standards of Extramural Competition.” She assisted with and taught college-level physical education at both institutions while attending them. After graduating, she worked as a teacher of physical education at the Mary C. Wheeler School in Providence, Rhode Island, from 1949 to 1952. She also was an avid camp counselor, and held the position of Head of Boating and Canoeing for three years at Camp Nawita in New York. She had a younger sister named Jane, with whom she lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia, before coming to work at OSC.
