g the last ten years of her life she
was fighting tuberculosis, and in a state of health which, for
the ordinary woman, would have justified an invalid existence,
we appreciate more fully her indomitable will and selflessness.
During the winter of 1890-1891, she was obliged to spend some
months in Thomasville, Georgia, and in her absence the duties of
her office devolved upon Professor Frances E. Lord, the head
of the Department of Latin, whose sympathetic understanding of
Miss Shafer's ideals enabled her to carry through the difficult
year with signal success. Miss Shafer rallied in the mild climate,
and probably her life would have been prolonged if she had chosen
to retire from the college; but her whole heart was in her work,
and undoubtedly if she had known that her coming back to Wellesley
meant only two more years of life on earth, she would still have
chosen to return.

Miss Shafer had no surface qualities, although her friends knew
well the keen sense of humor which hid beneath that grave and
rather awkward exterior. But when the alumnae who knew her speak
of her, the words that rise to their lips are justice, integrity,
sympathy. She was an honorary member of the class of 1891, and
on December 8, 1902, her portrait, painted by Kenyon Cox, was
presented to the college by the Alumnae Association.

Miss Shafer's academic degrees were from Oberlin, the M.A. in 1877
and the LL.D. in 1893.

Mrs. Caroline Williamson Montgomery (Wellesley, '89), in a memorial
sketch written for the '94 Legenda says: "I have yet to find the
Wellesley student who could not and would not say, 'I can always
feel sure of the fairness of Miss Shafer's decision.' Again and
again have Wellesley students said, 'She treats us like women,
and knows that we are reasoning beings.' Often she has said,
'I feel that one of Wellesley's strongest points is in her alumnae.'
And once more, because of this confidence, the alumnae, as when
students, were spurred to do their best, were filled with loyalty
for their alma mater.... If I should try to formulate an expression
of that life in brief, I should say that in her relation to the
students there was perfect justness; as regards her own position,
a passion for duty; as regards her character, simplicity, sincerity,
and selflessness."

For more than sixteen years, from 1877, when she came to the
college as head of the Department of Mathematics, to January 20,
1894, when she died, its presiden