Noted reformer and suffragist Belle Sherwin (1869–1955) was born in Cleveland to Frances and Henry Alden Sherwin, founder of the Sherwin-Williams paint company. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley College (B.S., 1890), then studied history at Oxford University before taking on teaching positions at two girls’ schools in New England. In 1900, Sherwin returned to Cleveland and became the first president of the Consumers League of Ohio. A trustee of the Federation for Charity and Philanthropy, she was a tireless civic planner who helped design a parallel organization, the Cleveland Welfare Council, to coordinate the work of the city’s social service agencies. In April 1914, the council asked her to become its founding president. Later that year she requested that the Cleveland Foundation conduct a speedy study of how to strengthen the city’s relief effort. Sherwin joined the foundation’s board in 1917, resigning seven years later to assume the presidency of the National League of Women Voters in Washington.