13 Facts About Josephine Roche

Josephine Aspinwall Roche was an American humanitarian, industrialist, Progressive Era activist, and politician.

Josephine Roche was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1986.

Josephine Roche was born in Neligh, Nebraska, and raised in Omaha, attending private girls' schools there before matriculating at Vassar College in 1904.

In 1906, her parents, John and Ella Josephine Roche, moved to Denver, where much of her life's work would be centered.

Josephine Roche volunteered for social causes in both New York City and Denver, studied cost of living issues, and in 1912 returned to Denver full-time to become that city's first female police officer.

Josephine Roche then proceeded to enact a variety of pro-labor policies, including an invitation for the United Mine Workers of America to return to Colorado and unionize her mines, 15 years after her father and other coal mine owners had broken the unions in the aftermath of the Ludlow Massacre of 1914.

In 1934, Josephine Roche left Rocky Mountain Fuel to run for Governor of Colorado.

Josephine Roche was ordered by bankruptcy court to liquidate assets and all mines ceased operation but the liquidation was not completed.

Josephine Roche continued in control of the defunct company and the remaining assets and moved to Washington, DC Josephine Roche became president of Rocky Mountain Fuel Company in 1950 and maintained control of the company's non-liquidated assets until her death in 1976.

From her position as Roosevelt's assistant secretary of the treasury, Josephine Roche led an interdepartmental study team and convened a 1938 conference to address national health.

Josephine Roche did not try to develop a national support base and she did not provide a rationale for establishing health care as a national right.

Reformers hoped Josephine Roche would become the administrator of the new Federal Security Agency in 1939, but President Franklin Roosevelt passed her over.

Josephine Roche had wide contacts but they worked at cross purposes and there was no self-contained and unified female network.