Margaret M. Justin was born in Agra, KS, on June 15, 1889. Her family moved to Manhattan, KS, in 1904. She received her Bachelor's degree from Kansas State Agricultural College in 1909, and a Bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1915. She worked as a dietician at Kansas City Hospital, 1909-1911, taught sewing at the School for the Deaf in Olathe, KS, 1911-1913, and domestic science at Bennett Academy, a Methodist Missionary School, near Clarkson, MS, in 1913. She was head of the home demonstration agents in Northern Michigan, 1916-1918, before serving in the YMCA canteen service in Europe, 1918-1919. The American Association of University Women granted her the Berlinger Research Fellowship in 1922. Justin earned a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from Yale in 1923, the same year she became Dean of the College of Home Economics at KSAC. She was elected secretary of the home economics section of the Association of Land Grant Colleges in 1924. In 1927, she traveled to rural England to do research. Justin was the first Kansan to be President of the American Home Economics Association, 1928-1930. She was a member of the National Educational Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, Iota Sigma Phi, Omicron Nu, and Phi Upsilon Omicron. She took sabbatical leave for advanced study in England, 1933-1934. In 1954, she received a Fulbright appointment to lecture in Home Economics in the Netherlands, resigning her position as Dean of Home Economics. Justin Hall was named after her in 1960. Justin died on June 10, 1967.

Sources:

Vertical File. Justin, Margaret
Alumni Records, 1914
K-Stater, March 1954, pg. 12-13