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Sague, Mary Landon, Miller, Maria Tastevin, de Schweinitz, Margaret
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Date
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[After 1950]
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Text
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FLORENCE DONNELL WHITE 1882 - 1950 The Faculty of Vassar College expresses its deep sense of loss in the death on December 15, 1950 of Florence Donnell White, Professor Emeritus of French. Miss White was born in Alna, Maine, on January 23, 1882. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1903, taught for two years at the Springfield, Massachusetts, High School, and received her M.A. degree from Mount Holyoke in 1907. Continuing her graduate study at Bryn Mawr, where she was a Fellow in...
Show moreFLORENCE DONNELL WHITE 1882 - 1950 The Faculty of Vassar College expresses its deep sense of loss in the death on December 15, 1950 of Florence Donnell White, Professor Emeritus of French. Miss White was born in Alna, Maine, on January 23, 1882. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1903, taught for two years at the Springfield, Massachusetts, High School, and received her M.A. degree from Mount Holyoke in 1907. Continuing her graduate study at Bryn Mawr, where she was a Fellow in Romance Languages, and also at the University of Paris, she received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Bryn Mawr in 1915. She came to Vassar in 1908, and was glad to carry on her whole career in the college which she loved and on which she has left her distinctive mark as an educator and as a person. The gratitude felt by Miss White's students for what her teaching means to them was well expressed in one letter, received at the time of her retirement in l9h7, when the Florence Donnell White Fund was established: I felt when I left Vassar and feel even more strongly after twenty-four years that her teach- ing gave in fullest measure what a college educa- tion should give: respect for scholarship, honesty and humility in the practice of it, and as an end result of four years of study a founda- tion of knowledge of and interest in the subject so well-laid that nothing can destroy it. There were no easy short-cuts in Miss White's courses - for herself or her students... Her stu- dents were well-informed, because she informed them well, with the highest standards for thorough work, with a belief in the importance of exact knowledge as against guesswork and good intentions, and with a mastery of her subject which, shared with them, gave them a fund of appreciative familiarity with France that they would use and enjoy for the rest of their lives. ' Miss White was chairman of the department of French from 1918 until 19h6. She served on the most important elective committees of the faculty; among those which claimed her activity for the longest periods were the 30 FLORENCE DONNELL WHITE (Continued) Committee on the Curriculum, on Students‘ Records, and the Advisory Comittee. She published a study of Vol- taire's Essay on Epic Poetry, and in collaboration with colleagues made translations from the French and Spanish. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, of the Modern Lan- guage Association, the American Association of Teachers of French, the American Association of University Profes- sors, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial Dames of America. Outside the college she participated in the activities of the Institute of International Education and she was one of the originators of its program for the Junior Year Abroad. In recogition of her constant work in further- ance of understanding between the French and American peofile she was made Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur in 193 . Miss White's clarity of mind, her keen wit, her absolute justice, and her unfailing enthusiasm are qualities recalled by all who knew her. They enabled her to carry the responsibilities of teaching and administrative tasks with untiring strength and without ever seeming to be burdened. She had the tact and true sociability which came from a generous interest in people. A staunch New Englander, she had a deep affection for France, its literature and its people. In France, where she spent almost every summer, she counted many friends, one of whom has written, characteristically, "No one could have mgde the"United States better respected and loved than s e did. The Faculty of Vassar College, who have long had Miss White's sustaining presence among them, will keep the memory of her distinction, her wise counsel and her gracious company. Mary Landon Sague Maria Tastevin Miller Margaret de Schweinitz XIII - 171-172
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Creator
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Moore, Leverett J., Miller, Maria Tastevin, de Schweinitz, Margaret
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Date
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[After 1920]
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ELIZABETH mvrca PALMER 1865 - 1920 By the death of Elizabeth Hatch Palmer the Faculty of Vassar College has lost a member whose service has extended over a period of twenty years, and by this minute the Faculty aims to record its apprecia- tion of the work that she has accomplished. The selfsame qualities that made Professor Palmer so successful as a teacher were manifest in her work as a member of the Faculty - a broad and deep humanity, a high ideal of scholarship, a scrupulous honesty...
Show moreELIZABETH mvrca PALMER 1865 - 1920 By the death of Elizabeth Hatch Palmer the Faculty of Vassar College has lost a member whose service has extended over a period of twenty years, and by this minute the Faculty aims to record its apprecia- tion of the work that she has accomplished. The selfsame qualities that made Professor Palmer so successful as a teacher were manifest in her work as a member of the Faculty - a broad and deep humanity, a high ideal of scholarship, a scrupulous honesty towards herself and others, a sense of balance and justice made constructive through untiring energy and a sincere loyalty to the best interests of the College. She possessed in an unusual degree the capacity for detail combined with a sane opinion of its value and a notable gift for administration, which made her a valuable member of the important committees on which she served, particularly the Comittees on Petitions and Elections, on Intercollegiate Relations and on Admission. Professor Palmer was no mere laudator te oris acti either in the greater world without or In the ITFFIe world of the college, but a vital personality who saw clearly the essential connection between the past and the present. She possessed something of the ancient Roman virtus, something of Roman reverence and dignity, quickened by a sympathy which made her a loyal friend and a reasonable fellow-worker. To the College as a whole her death is a very real loss, but to her colleagues who enjoyed the privileges of a long association her honored memory will live as an eternal possession. Grace H. Macurdy Ida C. Thallon J. Leverett Moore VII - S2
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