Papers of Alice Turner Schafer, 1944-2012 (inclusive), 1980-1997 (bulk)

Alice Elizabeth Turner Schafer was born on June 18, 1915, in Richmond, Virginia, to Cleon (Dermott) and John Turner. Both of her parents died while she was very young, and she was raised by two aunts, Pearl Dickerson and Beulah (Dickerson) Rogers. Schafer studied mathematics at Westhampton College at University of Richmond (B.A. 1936), and the University of Chicago (S.M. 1940, Ph.D. 1942). She married mathematician Richard Donald Schafer in 1942. After their graduation in 1942, Richard joined the Navy, and Alice took a job teaching mathematics at Connecticut College. In 1944 she worked at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. When Richard returned from the Navy in 1945 they moved to Michigan, where they both taught at the University of Michigan. They moved again in 1946 to New Jersey where Schafer taught at Douglass College for two years. In 1948 they moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she taught at Swarthmore College; and in 1951, at Drexel Institute of Technology. Alice and Richard adopted their two sons during this time; John in 1948, and Richard in 1951. The family moved back to Connecticut in 1953, where Alice taught part-time at the University of Connecticut, and again at Connecticut College from 1954 to 1962. In 1962 Alice joined the faculty at Wellesley College. She chaired the mathematics department from 1963 to 1968; and received tenure in 1965.

Known for her efforts to encourage girls and women to learn mathematics, Alice Schafer was part of the women's caucus at a joint meeting of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America that formed the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) in January 1971. Mary W. Gray was elected as the first president; Schafer served as president from 1973 to 1975. At first, AWM operated like a grassroots movement, holding small meetings all over the country. Official bi-annual meetings were held in conjunction with the joint meetings of the American Mathematical Society, and the Mathematical Association of America. AWM encouraged mathematical organizations to consider both female and male mathematicians for candidates for offices and membership on committees, to invite more women to give talks, to organize sections on special topics such as "Women Mathematicians in Business, Industry, and Government'' at their meetings, and to increase the number of women editors on mathematical journals. For more information, see the Association for Women in Mathematics web site, http://sites.google.com/site/awmmath/.

In 1980 Schafer was named Helen Day Gould Professor of Mathematics at Wellesley College. She retired as mathematics professor that same year (she was 65), but stayed at Wellesley as chair of the Affirmative Action Program for two years. In 1982 she began teaching at Simmons College and was involved with the Radcliffe College Seminars. Schafer was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1985, and the Alice T. Schafer Mathematics Prize was established in her honor by the Association for Women in Mathematics in 1989. The prize was established in recognition of her service to the Association for Women in Mathematics, and her dedication to encouraging young women to study and enter careers in the mathematical sciences. Alice and Richard moved to Arlington, Virginia, when Richard retired from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988, and Alice taught at Marymount University from 1988 to 1996.

Schafer traveled six times to the People's Republic of China, bringing her love of mathematics, and the conviction that women could excel in the field. In 1980 she and Richard went with a private tour group. In 1987, 1989, and 1990 she traveled with the United Nations People to People Citizen Ambassador Program leading groups of undergraduate mathematics educators (1987) and a women in mathematics delegation (1989-1990). She led the United States/China Joint Conference on Education Delegation of Women Mathematicians to China in 1992, and the United States/China Joint Conference on Women in Science Delegation to Beijing, China in 1995. The women in science delegation met with representatives of the All-China Women's Federation, and the Chinese Women's Association of Science and Technology (CWAST) to examine the social status of women and their roles in society and the workplace. Alice retired for the last time in 1996. In 1998 she was awarded the Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Ha Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics by the Mathematics Association of America. That same year, Alice and Richard moved to Lexington, Massachusetts. Alice died on September 27, 2009, at the age of 94.