MARIAN PARKER WHITNEY
1861 - 1946
Marian Parker Whitney, who died at her New Haven home
on June 16th, 1946, in her 86th year, contributed a
great deal to the development of Vassar College during
her twenty-six years of service. Schooled largely in
Europe, a Ph.D. of Yale, she was at home in several
foreign languages and cultures and was tireless in
bringing students to a broad understanding of foreign
peoples and their literatures. As Head of the German
Department from 1905 to 1929 she introduced new methods
of language teaching which became a pattern for other
institutions. She built up a strong department, gave
many books to the Vassar library and by her text books
and journal articles she spread her influence far beyond
this campus. As the originator of our first course in
Comparative Literature - Contemporary Drama - she helped
to break down narrow departmentalism. Through her
European contacts as a leader in the woman suffrage
movement and as chairman of the Education Committee of
the International Council of Women she brought many
interesting guests to the college and helped work out
foreign exchanges of students and teachers. In all
these ways she was a most valuable member of the faculty;
more than all, she was a warm, liberal and generous
person, eager to make shy young instructors feel at home,
constantly helpful to them and to her students, and always
a most loyal friend.
Ruth J. Hofrichter
Anna T. Kitchel
Winifred Smith
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