Cora Dow (1868-1915) was a pioneering pharmacist who created a chain of successful drugstores. The second woman to qualify as a pharmacist in the US, Cora transformed her father’s run down shop into a successful chain by implementing cut rate prices, developing quality store brands and maintaining a high level of customer service.
Despite her successful career, Cora was anti-suffrage and claimed that she would have been happier as a housewife. Yet Cora was such a well known business woman during her lifetime that former president William Howard Taft eulogized her.
A detailed article describing Cora’s life and her business practices can be found here.
