Meet this gracious warrior who used her wealth and personality to support myriad organizations that promote the free market and civil society.
The new installment of Independent Women’s Forum's popular series of Champion Women profiles pays tribute to the late Ethelmae Craig Humphreys, a gracious warrior for the cause of liberty.
Over the years, Mrs. Humphreys used her wealth and the power of her personality to support myriad organizations that promote the free market and civil society.
Mrs. Humphreys died two days after Christmas last year, just short of her much anticipated 95th birthday, leaving behind a magnificent philanthropic and professional legacy.
“Ethelmae’s philanthropy reflects her belief in the power of individuals and civil society—rather than government—to provide for the critical needs of oneself, each other, and our communities,” Cato Institute CEO Peter Goetler wrote in a commemoration of Mrs. Humphreys. “Her very life story is an embodiment of her philosophy in action. For while I can’t stop thinking of her as a truly extraordinary individual, it’s more likely she’s an example of the extraordinariness that’s within each of us ordinary people. And liberty is the oxygen that gives life to such potential, providing each of us the ability to, like Ethelmae, leave our mark on the world.”
Known as “the matriarch of the roofing industry,” Mrs. Humphreys also left her mark on the business world. She went to work for TAMKO, a shingles company founded by her father, holding every job from sacking nails to running the company. A profile in a roofers magazine once observed that the secret of Ethelmae Humphreys was that she knew who she was. “She got a kick out of offering to get coffee for customers and suppliers, and then later in the meeting revealing that she was the CEO or Chairman,” the profile recalled.
Mrs. Humphreys and her husband, Jay Humphreys, who died in 1993, were devoted to ideas and were stalwarts of the movement to preserve civil society and our basic freedoms.
