Jean Picker papers

Jean Muriel Sovatkin was born on March 7, 1921, in Brooklyn, New York to Edward J. and Frances Sklar Sovatkin. Edward J. Sovatkin (originally naturalized under the name Sovatsky), an immigrant from Russia, joined his future father-in-law's surgical instruments manufacturing company as an office boy in 1902 and eventually worked his way up to president. He held several patents for surgical devices. Jean prepared for college at Packer Collegiate Institute. After her graduation from Smith College in 1942, she worked for Life magazine in London, New York, and Hollywood. She married Edwin de Haven Grosholz in 1943. The relationship did not survive the long separations caused by his navy service during World War II. They divorced in 1946. In 1947 she married Harvey Picker, a businessman who worked in medical manufacturing. Following the birth of their daughters, Frances and Gale, in 1949 and 1950, respectively, Jean began work as Director of Information for the Civil Defense Administration of Westchester, New York, County Government.

In 1953, in order to pursue her interest in international affairs, Picker began volunteering as a lecturer at the United Nations, interpreting U.N. goings-on to visitors. She held this position until 1961. In 1955, she collaborated with Eleanor Roosevelt to produce a booklet, "The United Nations and What You Should Know about It." In 1962, she co-founded the Interchange Foundation with Anna Lord Strauss. The Interchange Foundation produced informational and educational materials about the U.N. In 1973, Jean Picker compiled and published, through Interchange, a book titled Eleanor Roosevelt: Her Day.

In 1967, she was appointed to the United States National Commission for UNESCO. In the fall of 1968, she served as an Alternate United States Representative to the Third Committee of the Twenty-third General Assembly of the United Nations. The Third Committee is responsible for Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural issues. In February 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed Jean Picker United States Representative on the United Nations Commission for Social Development. She was Special Advisor to the United States delegation to numerous sessions of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) as well as the General Assembly. She ceased work in her official U.N. position in 1977, but remained active in civic organizations promoting the U.N.

She was a member of the Committee of Correspondence, a communications network that aimed to bring women's clubs around the world into closer contact. She served on numerous boards, including the Foreign Policy Association, the United Nations Association of the United States and several bank boards. She also served in leadership capacities for several colleges and universities, including Fisk University, Smith College, Friends World College, Columbia University, Colgate University, and Hampshire College. Among other awards, she was given the Smith College Medal in 1977. She was the first recipient of the first United Nations Eleanor Roosevelt Leadership Award in 1988 in honor of her commitment to international cooperation.

She resided on Edgewater Point in Mamaroneck, New York for many years. She died at the age of 69 in Camden, Maine in May 1990. Jean Picker endowed Smith College's Jean Picker Semester-in-Washington Program in 1971. The highly competitive program "provides students with an opportunity to study processes by which public policy is made and implemented at the national level." In 1999 Harvey Picker made a gift to Smith College in honor of his late wife to establish the Picker Engineering Program to attract women to the field. It was the first engineering program at a women's college.