If you enjoy Girl Scout Cookies, thank Iowa’s Lou Henry Hoover

This year, 2024, it marks the 150th birthday of Lou Henry Hoover, daughter of Iowa, respected scientist, first lady of the United States, and co-founder of the Girl Scout Cookie program.

Lou was born on March 29, 1874 at Waterloo, Iowa. Her father, Charles Henry, was a prominent local banker, but when his daughter turned eleven, moved with his family to Whittier, California.

Lou developed a deep appreciation for nature during her childhood on the prairies of Iowa and was fascinated by geology. In 1894, she enrolled in the education department at Stanford University but changed her major to geological sciences where she was the only woman in her class.

While there, she met a young metallurgy student, also from Iowa, named Herbert Hoover. With their similar interests in geology, he graduated in 1895 and she received her degree in 1898. A year later, they were married at her parent’s house in nearby Monterey.

Her husband immediately found employment with a mining company in China and the newlywed couple settled at Tientsin, along the Yellow Sea east of Peking (Beijing). While there, they were trapped by the Boxer Rebellion. After the uprising, both became known for their knowledge of minerals and organizational skills.

The Hoovers returned to the United States ahead of World War I and Herbert was put in charge at Washington, D.C. of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, which was experiencing a devastating famine. In three years, 2.5 million tons of food nourished more than 9 million people.

At the same time, Juliette Low, the founder of Girl Scouts of America, opened an office in the nation’s capital. Lou joined the board of directors, then, in 1917, was appointed vice president.

After World War I, Herbert was again tapped to bring nutrition to Europe (and Asia) when Russia could not produce enough food for its citizens. He was named Director of the American Relief Administration and built and supplied 19,000 community kitchens that provided meals to more than 12 million people.

Lou helped raise funds for the organization, but simultaneously, was named editor of the American Girl magazine, a publication sponsored by the Girl Scouts. In 1922, Lou was credited with helping start what would become one of the largest annual charitable fundraising efforts in history.

It was with her as editor that the magazine published, for the first time, a recipe for a basic sugar cookie which could be sold to raise funds for local Girl Scout troops. It laid out the recipe and went on to show that for 26 cents, ingredients could be purchased to bake six dozen cookies that could be sold for twenty-five cents a dozen. In so doing, the magazine and its editor had also printed the ingredients for what would become a cherished annual American tradition.

Lou was named president of the organization in 1922 and wasted no time in starting other traditions that expanded the appeal of the scouts nationwide. In 1923, the National Better Homes Convention was held in Washington, D.C. and a wooden house was erected just outside the White House grounds where classes were taught on homemaking and women’s issues of the day.

Seeing the interest it had piqued in the minds of children who visited, Lou provided a check for $12,000 to have the house moved to a permanent location in D.C. where it was so successful, similar “Little Houses” were erected for Girl Scouts in cities across the country.

After her husband was named Secretary of Commerce, she left her scouts position in 1925, but remained active with the organization. In 1928, as her husband ran for the presidency, they visited Cedar Rapids and Lou remembered fondly her time in Waterloo where she learned many of the principles she would espouse as leader of her scout troop.

Herbert won the election in a landslide victory, defeating New York Gov. Alfred E. Smith by 357 electoral votes to Smith’s 88. After moving into the White House, the new first lady brought the Girl Scouts with her as she presided over the meetings of Girl Scout Troop #8 in the Executive Mansion. She also invited and hosted Jessie De Priest, the wife of Oscar De Priest, the first Black Congressman from a northern state, at a tea party at the White House.

On Oct. 29, 1929, the stock market crashed and precipitated what would become the worst economic depression in history. Even though it began less than six months into his presidency, Hoover received the blame. In 1932, he lost the presidential; election to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hoover then continued to work in food relief for the country along with the former first lady, and split their time between California and New York.

Girl Scouts of America, however, had since moved into a headquarters at New York, and Lou again became President in 1935. She advocated that, in response to the Great Depression, the organization should teach economics as well as homemaking skills. That year, the first commercially produced cookies were introduced with the Girl Scout label. In introducing them, it allowed the young ladies of GSA to learn marketing and salesmanship on a far larger scale.

Lou resigned the presidency in 1937, but just as with the Little Houses and the 1922 magazine article, had provided the proverbial recipe that saw the Girl Scouts expand to more than a million and a half members selling in excess of 200 million boxes of cookies every year.

Lou Henry Hoover died in 1944 and was buried at Palo Alto, California. Her husband survived her by 20 years before passing away in 1964. The former president of the United States and humanitarian was laid to rest on a hilltop overlooking his childhood home at West Branch, Iowa.

Lou was moved from California and Herbert and Lou rest side by side marked with modest white stones that can be seen from his family’s cottage.

Thousands of Girl Scouts have paid their respects at the gravesite ever since.

David V. Wendell is a Marion historian, author and special events coordinator specializing in American history.