MARY LANDON SAGUE
1885-1971
Mary Landon Sague spent most of her life at Vassar College
and in the City of Poughkeepsie. Like so many of her genera-
tion of teachers at Vassar, she combined her duties as a
member of the college family with those of the larger com-
munity surrounding it.
From her entrance as a freshman in 1903 until her death last
March, her love of Vassar College and her interest in it never
waned. She joined the faculty in 1909 as an assistant in
Chemistry. Her long association with Chemistry 105 made fast
friends of many generations of Vassar students. They recog-
nized her worth as a teacher and her interest in them as an
advisor. At her retirement and more recently at her death,
many alumnae wrote with great affection telling how much hav-
ing her as a teacher and friend had meant to them through the
years. Rather early in her career the chairmanship of the
Department of Chemistry was thrust upon her and immediately
her genius for getting things done in an orderly fashion was
given full play. She recognized certain shortcomings in the
staff in Chemistry and began, by thoughtful appointment, to
gather about her a staff of permanent, competent instructors.
She was well aware of the needs of the library, too, and with
the staff began to build up the collection of books and jour-
nals in the science.
Perhaps Mrs. Sague was best known on the campus as the marshal
of the faculty and for her direction of the affairs of the
Comittee on Fellowships and Graduate Study. Members of the
faculty had such faith in her ability and fairness in dealing
with all aspects of the difficult task involved that they re-
elected her chairman term after term for many years. Her
service on comittees was sought but on this one she shone.
As she approached retirement, she was asked to undertake the
indexing of the faculty minutes. She accepted the assignment,
hideous as it was in detail and magnitude. After four years
of painstaking labor the Index of Faculty Minutes from 1965
to 1958 had been completed. At that moment in 1958, she must
have been the leading authority on the history of the Vassar
Faculty.
MARY LANDON SAGUE (continued)
Mrs. Sague without seeming effort organized her time so that
she could enter fully into the life of the Poughkeepsie com-
munity. Her service to the Vassar Brothers‘ Hospital in the
years of its expansion from a small community venture to one
that holds a dominant place in the Hudson Valley was invalu-
able. She was on the Board of Directors of the Family Service
Association (now the Family Counselling Service) and soon
became its president and served as its presiding officer for
many years. After her retirement from Vassar and from many
community affairs, she was honored again and again by organi-
zations in the city in recognition of her contributions. At
its twenty-fifth anniversary dinner, the Poughkeepsie chapter
of the American Association of University Women honored her
as one of its founders and its first president. As late as
1965, she was the honored guest at a luncheon given by the
United Fund. This was in recognition of the work that she
had done for the Fund as a member of the board and finally
as campaign chairman and president of the Comunity Chest as
it was called in her day.
She was proud of her Vermont heritage and did not let one for-
get that her roots were there. Each summer she returned to
Greensboro, Vermont, a place she loved dearly. At the height
of her career, it was particularly fitting that Middlebury
College conferred upon her the honorary degree of Doctor of
Science, recognizing her both as an educator and as a Vermonter.
In the final analysis, though, Mrs. Sague's life was centered
in Vassar College. She loved her college and worked consist-
ently to keep it a great institution. The well-being of
students was one of her primary concerns. She enjoyed teach-
ing them. She liked to talk with them and her office was open
all hours of the day for conference or just for casual conversa-
tion. She used her resources anonymously to help many a student.
She entertained them at her house in town. In her last annual
report to the President submitted on June 28, 1951, she wrote:
"Chemistry is a thrilling subject and teaching it is an enthral-
ling, exciting profession." Teaching was her life. Mary Landon
Sague was a scholar, a fine teacher and tireless worker and a
devoted, charming friend.
Winifred Asprey
Mary O. Hillis
Edward R. Linner