Bitting, Katherine

Katherine Golden (1869–1937) was born in Canada, but her family later immigrated to the United States. She received her bachelor’s degree from the State Normal School in Salem, Massachusetts; studied bacteriology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge; and received an MS from Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana. While completing her master’s thesis, she worked at the Purdue Agricultural Extension Station, and in 1893 she became an assistant professor, teaching biology, structural botany, and bacteriology. At Purdue, she met and married Arvil Bitting, who had previously served as veterinarian for the Agricultural Experiment Station in Florida for three years. He received a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Iowa State College in 1895. After graduation, he began teaching veterinary medicine at Purdue University while studying medicine at the Indiana Medical College. He received his MD degree in 1900 but never practiced medicine.