Frances I. Tepper

Orphaned at age sixteen, Frances Tepper put herself through the University of Southern California, graduating magna cum laude. She married her high school sweetheart and returned to New York, her home state, raising three children and working, first as a social worker and then at Cornell Cooperative Extension in the 4-H program. In 1992, she embarked on a career that would become her passion for the next twenty years: executive director of the Monroe County Fair and Recreation Association and manager of the Fair Association’s events center. She was the first woman to hold that position in the fair’s 169-year history, as well as one of the few women to hold that position in the country. Fran retired in 2012, and followed her dream of writing books.