DORIS SCHECHTER KIRSCHNER:

Doris Schechter Kirschner was born December 20, 1923 in St. Paul, Minnesota, the fourth child of Harry and Esther Schechter. While attending St. Paul's Central High School, Doris met her future husband Melvin Kirschner (b. 16 July 1923). The romance continued after their graduation in 1941, culminating in a secret wedding in May of 1942. The marriage was re-solemnized in a Jewish ceremony attended by friends and family on December 6, 1942. Doris briefly attended the University of Minnesota where she studied home economics, while Mel pursued a degree in chemical engineering. Mel's studies were interrupted by the his draft into the Army in May, 1944. Following training in Washington D.C. for the Medical Corps, Mel was shipped to Europe where he served as a medical laboratory technician in evacuation hospitals in France and Germany. The Kirschner's first child, Barry William, was born December 6, 1944, just as Mel was shipped to Europe. After being separated for more than one year, the Kirschners were reunited in late December of 1945. Richard James was born in 1947, followed by Robert Allan in 1948. Mel completed his chemical engineering degree at the University of Minnesota in 1948 and worked for Superior Bottling Company (St. Paul, Minn.) as a dispatcher. In 1950, he took a job at as a shift engineer for Silas Mason Company, necessitating a family move to Grand Island, Nebraska. The Kirschners moved back to Minnesota in September of 1953 when Mel was hired by Honeywell.

After moving back to St. Paul, Doris entered the University of Minnesota and completed her B.S. degree in home economics from the university's Department of Food Science and Nutrition in 1958. She was accepted into the graduate program and awarded a work scholarship, but hampered by health problems, she was soon forced to give up these plans. Despite the fact that she was unable to continue her formal education, Doris strove to put her knowledge to practical use in the kitchen. In 1954 she started the first of her daily menu planners, which she has continued for more than forty years. A particular interest since her teen years, cooking remained a passion for Doris throughout her life. By the 1990s, Kirschner had collected more than 2,000 cookbooks (most now at the University of Minnesota's Department of Food Science and Nutrition) reflecting cuisines across the world.

Although frequently ill as a young woman, Doris's health took a turn for the worse in 1959 following a family trip to Florida. Eventually she was diagnosed with lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus), an autoimmune disease causing wide-ranging ailments. For Doris the disease meant numerous hospitalizations, near constant discomfort, frequent flare ups of severe pain and confinement to her bed for days at a time. In later years the stress of chronic illness was intensified by family tragedy: In 1973 at age 29, the Kirschner's son Barry committed suicide at his home in Boulder, Colorado. The loss of their son and subsequent estrangement from his wife, Charlene, put a strain on the Kirschners' marriage with which they struggled for many years after.

Despite her ongoing battle with lupus and other health problems, Doris and her family remained constantly active. In 1962 family moved to Italy after Mel accepted a special assignment from Honeywell. Doris and Mel, along with their youngest son, Robert, resided in Florence while the older boys attended a boarding school for international students in Rome. The family returned to Minnesota in 1963, eventually settling in near Minneapolis's Lake of the Isles. Doris and Mel continued to travel frequently, including several returns to Europe and many trips around the U.S. in their motor home, most of which Doris documented in her diaries. Doris kept up an extensive correspondence throughout her life with friends and family around the world. They also hosted many foreign visitors in their home with whom they kept in close contact throughout the later years. In 1985 the Kirschners hosted the granddaughter of their former maid in Florence, with whom they had become good friends. By 1991 they had begun hosting teachers from Kobe College in Kobe, Japan as part of an ongoing exchange program. Seeking the health benefits of a warmer climate, the Kirschners decided in 1993 to travel in the southwestern United States, and eventually made a new home in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Kirschner died May 7, 2001 at Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Genealogical chart of the Kirschner and Schechter families available in pdf format.

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The Doris Schechter Kirschner Papers consist primarily of correspondence and diaries and other materials relating to the life of a Jewish woman and her family in St. Paul and Minneapolis. The collection is organized into three major series: diaries, correspondence and related materials, and cooking-related materials, each arranged roughly chronologically.

Kirschner's diaries include her personal daily journals (1940, 1962-1986), as well as several trip diaries (1959, 1977, 1978, and undated). The 1940 diary, kept while Kirschner was a student at Central High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, outlines day to day activities and describes her meeting and early relationship with future husband Melvin Kirschner. The bulk of the diaries date from a later period in Kirschner's life, spanning a quarter of a century during the period her sons were reaching adulthood and starting their own families. The diaries vary from brief overviews of the day's activities written on wall calendars to detailed accounts of Kirschner's feelings and physical condition on a given day. Topics of note include the family's sojourn in Italy (1962-1963), Kirschner's relationship with her sons and her daughters-in-law, the suicide of eldest son Barry and its effect on family relationships, the ups and downs of the Kirschners' marriage, and the many descriptions of Jewish celebrations and observances that framed the family life. In addition there are many references to cooking, including descriptions of elaborate culinary preparations for Passover and other Jewish holidays.

Because Kirschner frequently recorded daily symptoms and medications (often in abbreviated notations in the margins of the pages, keyed to a list at the beginning of the volume), the diaries are also remarkable as a record of the course of her battle with lupus throughout the years. Kirschner also kept separate journals during several of the trips she and her husband took around the United States in their motor home. These are less personal in nature than the regular diaries; Although they provide an often extremely detailed listing of each day's activities, they contain few entries giving insights into Kirschner's opinions and thoughts on these experiences.

Kirschner's collection of correspondence (including picture postcards, v-mail, and greeting cards, as well as traditional letters) with her husband, her sons, and their families, as well as other relatives and friends, forms the largest part of the papers. The series is arranged chronologically by correspondent, beginning with the body of correspondence between Kirschner and her husband during their courtship (1940-1942) and his wartime service (1944-1945). This group of letters is particularly useful and interesting because it includes both sides of the correspondence. Written from her parents' home in St. Paul, Doris's letters describe her first and very difficult pregnancy, son Barry's first year, and other family matters. Mel's letters focus on his experiences in the military, including his training for the medical corps, and include descriptions of several European cities he visited while on furlough. The letters also include comments on world events such as the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the bombing of Japan, as well as personal issues such as birth control and disagreements among family members. Many of the letters were later annotated by Doris (mainly in 1971).

The next major section of the series consists of correspondence between family members during periods of separation in the 1950s and 1960s. These letters include descriptions of Mel's experiences as he adjusted to a new job as a shift engineer for Silas Mason, Inc. in Grand Island, Nebraska; business trips and vacations to Florida and to Florence, Italy; and Barry and Richard's impressions of the Notre Dame International School in Rome, which they attended during the family's stay in Florence.

Richard Kirschner, along with his wife Patricia (Patti), and daughter Shanna, became major correspondents once Richard moved away from the Twin Cities. Soon after marrying, Richard and Patti departed for a year-long trip around Europe and Asia, which they describe in detailed letters sent home. Their letters (1971-1995) are rich in descriptions of Jewish family life and synagogue related activities. Of particular interest are letters concerning Patti's decision to convert to Judaism (1975), and daughter Shanna's Jewish education, both at home through family observances and celebrations and more formally through her Bat Mitzvah (1992) and a year living on a kibbutz and attending high school in Israel (1994-1995).

The remainder of the series is composed mainly of correspondence from various family members and friends around the world including those met in Italy and through the Kobe College Home Stay program. Particularly notable are letters and an album from Kazuto Hirosawa, a teacher from Kobe College who stayed in their home (1991-1995), and a folder of annual holiday letters (the type that was duplicated and sent out to friends) describing major events for the family during the past year (1962, 1968-1971). In addition, the series includes pages from a scrapbook of newspaper clippings, poems and cartoons collected by Doris throughout the 1970s and 1980s, a family expense record book (1959-1963), and two folders of photographs and negatives (mainly from the 1950s) of family members. A folder of biographical materials at the end of the series includes Doris's wedding planner (1942) (with names of wedding party, guests, and list of gifts), Mel's 1949 resume, and Doris's University of Minnesota transcript and application to the graduate school.

The final series in the collection reflects Doris's lifelong passion for cooking. The menu calendars (1959-1974, 1982-1989) are the highlight of the series, providing a record of the family's eating habits as they evolved over nearly thirty years and illustrating the use of increasing numbers of ethnic dishes in the menus along with the traditional Jewish recipes of Doris's childhood. Many of the latter are included in a handwritten notebook of recipes dictated to Doris by her mother, Esther Schechter. A 1995 article from the Star Tribune gives a history of the menus and describes her enormous collection of cookbooks, now housed at the University of Minnesota.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Doris Schechter Kirschner Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Microfilm Production:

Menu calendars. St. Paul, MN : Minnesota Historical Society, 1996. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm.

Microfilm of the menu calendars is available for sale or interlibrary loan from the Minnesota Historical Society.

Alternate Form Available:

The menu calendar portion of this collection is available for use on microfilm.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,222; 15,403

Processing Information:

Processed by: Lara D. Friedman, June 1996.

Catalog ID number: 990017332400104294

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The Kirschner kitchen cookbook collection is available the University of Minnesota Food Science and Nutrition Building, St. Paul, MN.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Americans -- Foreign countries.

Armed Forces -- Military life.

Communication in marriage.

Cooking.

Domestic relations.

Exchange of persons programs.

Interfaith marriage.

Japanese students -- Minnesota.

Jewish cooking.

Jewish families -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Jewish families -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Judaism -- Customs and practices.

Lupus -- Psychological aspects.

Menus -- Planning.

Passover cooking.

Soldiers -- United States -- Social life and conditions.

Suicide.

Systemic lupus erythematosus.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Medical care.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, American.

Persons:

Hirosawa, Kazuto, author.

Kirschner, Barry W., 1944-1973, author.

Kirschner, Judy, author.

Kirschner, Melvin, 1923- author.

Kirschner, Patricia, author.

Kirschner, Richard J., 1947- author.

Kirschner, Robert A., 1948- author

Kirschner, Shanna, 1979- author.

Schechter, Esther, author.

Organizations:

Honeywell Inc.

Notre Dame International School (Rome, Italy)

Silas Mason Co.

United States. Army -- Military life.

Walter Reed Army Medical Center (Washington D.C.)

Places:

Asia -- Description and travel.

Europe -- Description and travel.

Florence (Italy) -- Social life and customs.

United States -- Description and travel.

Document Types:

Black-and-white negatives.

Commonplace books.

Diaries.

Menus.

Microforms.

Photographs.

Occupations:

Homemakers -- Minnesota.

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