Abstract
The daughter of Alice Elizabeth O’Connor ’28, Chmielewski begins her interview by relating childhood memories of accompanying her mother to Pembroke College reunions. She then describes her social and academic life as as a student herself, a city girl – a female day student who attended Pembroke but did not live on campus, who later lived on campus. The experiences she recalls include spending time at West House and the Gate as a commuter student, inviting her future husband, Jack Anderson ’58, to the Pembroke Christmas Dance, her somewhat reluctant participation in the 1958 Miss Cranston Pageant, and developing an academic interest in Psychology.
Chmielewski also describes her life after college, including her decision to pursue social work, serving as an administrator at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York, her decision earn a Ph.D. while raising two children, and her private psychotherapy practice. To conclude the interview, Chmielewski discusses how she has stayed connected to the University as an alumna and how academics at Brown had changed by the time her son, Brian Anderson ’90, entered as a student.
Part 1
Part 2
Recorded on May 25, 2013 in Pembroke Hall, Brown University, Providence, RI
Interviewed by Wendy Korwin
Suggested Chicago style citation: Chmielewski, Ann Martha. Interview. By Wendy Korwin. Pembroke Center Oral History Project, Brown University. May 25, 2013.
Biography
Ann Martha Chmielewski was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1938, the daughter of Alice Elizabeth O’Connor ’28, a social worker, and Alexander Chmielewski, who worked as Banking Commissioner for the State of Rhode Island. Her family moved from Providence to Cranston at age twelve, and Chmielewski graduated from Cranston High in 1955. She attended Pembroke College for two years as a commuter student before moving on campus.
After graduating from Pembroke in 1959 with an A.B. in psychology, Chmielewski moved to Boston with her future husband, Jack Anderson ’58, and completed her Masters in Social Work at Simmons College. In 1963, Anderson’s career took the couple to Rochester, New York, where Chmielewski worked at the Rochester Child Guidance Clinic, and Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester. She began her Ph.D. studies at Syracuse University in 1980 while the couple raised their two children, Brian and Kirsten. She received her degree in 1987 and maintainted a full-time private psychotherapy practice until retiring to Colorado in 2000.