Schaefer, Helen

Part 1 of 2 was recorded on October 19th, 2018 in Tucson, Arizona and covers the following themes:

b. 1933 

  • Childhood in Evanston, IL. Father’s life and work in a paint shop. Early interest in chemistry. Mother’s life and college experience. Effects of the Great Depression on childhood. 

  • Parents’ emphasis on higher education for Schaefer.  Attended the University of Michigan for undergraduate. Studying chemistry in the early 1950s. Obstacles and allies for women entering the hard sciences. 

  • Jobs and internships during and after college. 

  • Power dynamics between college faculty and students in the 1950s. 

  • Challenge of husbands and wives working at the same institutions. 

  • Schaefer’s career interests. 

  • Meeting John Schaefer studying chemistry at the University of Illinois. 

  • Trying to balance careers. 

  • Stopping PhD program in 1961.   

  • Use of ILLIAC computer and early computing. 

Part 2 of 2 was recorded on April 11th, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona and covers the following themes:

  • First visit to Tucson in the 1950s and move to city in 1960. 

  • Social circle in the Chemistry Department. Culture of, and around, the University.  

  • Social expectations for a university president’s wife in the 1970s. 

  • Board membership of WISE, Women in Science and Engineering. 

  • Role of women in the sciences over Schaefer’s life. 

  • Service on other boards: League of Women Voters in the 1960s, United Way, Tucson Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra League. Philanthropy in Tucson. 

  • Tucson Symphony. 

  • UA Poetry Center. 

  • Returning to school in the 1970s to finish PhD. 

  • Changes in Tucson and the borderlands. 

Aengus Anderson