Other articles by Ernesto Portillo:

An old-school kind of woman Neto's Tucson by Ernesto Portillo Jr. : Family's horses, rural lifestyle linger at rancho within Tucson Shuttles offer commuters a way to save amid gas spiral Shuttle riders can beat skyrocketing gas prices Ernesto Portillo Jr.: Woman free from chains of illiteracy at age of 48 Town manager proposes slight spending boost Community notes Waste-plant expansion to greatly cut smell, too Neto's Tucson by Ernesto Portillo Jr. : Helping kids read 'is in my heart' Big changes ahead for Sahuarita traffic

Trades/Construction
Paragon Electric
Electricians Health Care
FRONT OFFICE Production and Manufacturing
Pioneer Landscaping
Crushing Crew Trades/Construction
Jacobs Electric
Electricians & Helpers Trades/Construction
arizona portland cement
maintenance electrician General
Prestige maintenance USA
Custodian General
ADVANCED AUTOMOTIVE
DISPATCHER/SECRETARY

When Corinne Stinson came to Tucson from Texas in 1960, she was already a well-traveled woman. She had crisscrossed two Texas Panhandle counties for 14 years teaching families how to better their lives.

But after she joined the University of Arizona, the Grand Canyon state became hers.

"I covered the whole state," said Stinson. "The only place I didn't go to was down in Havasupai Canyon."

Few people have ventured into that remote spot in the Grand Canyon. But even fewer probably have traversed Arizona like Stinson, who for 22 years drove the state's lonely roads working as a cooperative extension specialist. She took college research and helped folks apply it to their everyday lives.

"I met wonderful people and saw wonderful places," said Stinson, 84, a diminutive woman with beautiful white hair.

Although she retired in 1982, Stinson remains busy as a volunteer with Altrusa International, a service organization devoted to promoting literacy and education.

"I didn't have a good excuse to quit," said Stinson, who has retained her Texas plains' dry drawl and humor.

She was born in Oklahoma but raised in the Texas Panhandle. Her father was an agricultural cooperative extension agent and her mother taught home economics.

But the 1930s' Great Depression and Dust Bowl ruined the lives of thousands of families in the Panhandle and the Southern Plains. The drought of water and jobs sent many of them West.

"Unless you lived through it, there's no way to explain to people what it was like," said Stinson, one of eight children.

Her family, while a little better off than others, lost their home. But they survived.

After World War II, Stinson graduated from Texas Tech University in Lubbock with a home-economics degree. She became a cooperative extension agent like her father.

While many people have an image that home economics means high-school cooking and sewing classes, it was more than that, Stinson said.

She taught families how to manage their households, finances and purchases. She taught nutrition, food science and healthy food preparation.

Stinson instructed people in their homes or held workshops in small community halls or schools.

And she taught many families how to use electricity, which was just arriving, and the new electrical home contraptions that followed.

"You teach by example," she said.

Stinson earned a master's degree in managerial home economics from Texas A&M University in College Station. On the advice of a former co-worker living in Tucson, the UA recruited Stinson.

Today, the Cooperative Extension System in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has 57 faculty members, 121 staff members and 11,992 volunteers working across the state, including on Indian reservations.

When Stinson arrived here, there were two other home-economic extension agents working the state. Stinson took to the road.

"Remember, this was when cars had no air conditioning," she said.

At the same time she began working at the UA, Stinson joined Altrusa, a national all-women's service club founded in 1919. Today it's an international organization that includes men.

Altrusa formed a Tucson chapter in 1939. It brought professional women together to meet and support one another and engage in community service projects focusing on children.

"It's just been tremendous, in a small, quiet way," Stinson said.

Just like Stinson, who contributed to improving the lives of people. She did it in her own small, quiet way.