M iss Helen Almira Shafer, M.A., LL.D.,President of Wellesley College, was a distinguished mathematician and educator. Her picture was provided by the College. No member of the Shafer family achieved greater eminence or was more widely known than the subject of this sketch.
She was born in Newark, NJ., September 23, 1839. Her parents were Rev. Archibald Stinson and Almira (Miller) Shafer. He was a clergyman of the Congregational denomination. The family moved westward, and for many years lived at Oberlin, Ohio, where the family home is still maintained [1907]
Note concerning Helen's genealogy: Her father Archibald Stinson Shafer was the grandson of Maj. Peter B. Shafer, by his third child Isaac Shafer. Apparently, this is the individual that my second great grandfather was named after.
Miss Shafer, died at the College at Wellesley, Mass., 20 January, 1894, of pneumonia, after an illness of less than a week. Representatives of the faculty of Wellesley attended her funeral, which was held at Oberlin, and delivered addresses on her character and life.
The following is an abstract of a notice published in a Boston paper and reprinted in the Oberlin News, 25 Jan., 1894.
"Miss Shafer was graduated from Oberlin College in 1863. After teaching two years in New Jersey, she accepted a position in St. Louis, Mo. In this school she held the position of leading instructor of mathematics for ten years, laying a foundation for a distinguished career as teacher of higher mathematics. In 1877 she was called to the chair of Mathematics in Wellesley College, which she held until 1888, when she succeeded Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer as President. For her new duties she was admirably fitted, both by natural gifts and by experience and training. Her scholarly ability, tact and skill in the class room, her dignity and her weight of character, her generous and affectionate nature and her unique versatility, won for her the love of successive classes of young women who as alumnae of the college rendered her unfailing loyalty and support. Her frail physique seemed the only obstacle to her success. Yet her health suffered no apparent loss under her administrative cares, and there was good ground of hope that she had entered a long and fruitful term of office. In 1878 she received the degree of M.A. from Oberlin college, and in 1893 the degree of LL.D."
Among the comment on her death is one by W.T. Harris, United States commissioner of Education, who said: "In the death or President Shafer higher education suffers a great loss. Her methods of instruction produced the best results I have ever known, and her personal influence over youth to secure earnest work and solidity of character, was remarkable." Other expressions of sympathy and esteem were from President Dwight of Yale, President Carter of Williams, President Taylor of Vassar, President Dean Talbot, of Chicago.
The above writings were extracted from the book, "Memoirs and Reminiscences.p. 124-125"