Frances Maude Senska[1] (March 9, 1914 – December 25, 2009) was an art professor and artist specializing in ceramics who taught at Montana State University – Bozeman from 1946 to 1973.
[1] Her father was a physician who founded Sakbayémé Hospital in the town of Sakbayeme in the highlands region of Bassa in Kamerun, her mother was a teacher who worked at the local missionary school.
[8] Her undergraduate training was in lithography,[9] and her graduate degree in applied arts (specializing in sculpture.
[11] She served in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1946 during World War II, where she was trained as a pilot.
She became interested in ceramics after taking a class from Edith Heath, then teaching at the California Labor School.
Olga Ross Hannon, the department's head, gave her $300, and she and her first class of students took over a storeroom in the basement of Herrick Hall, purchased foot-driven potter's wheels, and built an electric kiln from scratch.
[14][15] While teaching at Montana State, Senska met fellow art professor Jessie Spaulding Wilber.
She was one of the founding members of the Montana Institute of the Arts in 1948, served as the organization's Crafts Chair from 1954 to 1956, and was its director from 1961 to 1962.
[6] She also helped found the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana, in the early 1950s.