David Padget (’94 BBA)

Beloved Centenarian's Bequest Encourages Women Scientists

The University of Wisconsin-Madison lost a good friend in September 2002 when Elizabeth “Betty” Stafford Hirschfelder (Mathematics, PhD ’30) died at the age of 100. Betty’s devotion to the University and her vision for its programs led her to establish four endowment funds to benefit the UW.

Because of her appreciation for the fellowship she received as a student, Betty established the Elizabeth Hirschfelder Fund for Graduate Women in Math, Chemistry and Physics in the College of Letters & Science. Thirteen awards have been made to women graduate students since the fund was established in 1992.

Betty has left a bequest that will continue her long legacy of support for mathematics and science in the college through the Theoretical Chemistry Institute, the Department of Chemistry and the Elizabeth Hirschfelder Fund for Graduate Women in Math, Chemistry and Physics.

Betty received her BA and MA degrees in mathematics from Pembroke College, formerly the Women’s College at Brown University, in 1923 and 1924. After teaching mathematics at Texas Tech, she moved to Madison in 1926 to accept a fellowship with Professor Mark Ingraham. After she received her doctorate, she taught mathematics at the UW-Madison for almost 20 years.

With her first husband, Ivan Sokolnikoff, Betty co-authored an important textbook for engineering, “Higher Mathematics for Engineers and Physicists,” which was first published in 1934.

In 1953, she married Joseph O. Hirschfelder, professor of chemistry, and she played a critical role in proofing and editing the famous textbook “Molecular Theory of Gases and Liquids,” co-authored by Joe and his colleagues, professors R. Byron Bird and Charles F. Curtiss.

In the mid-1970s, the Hirschfelders divided their time between UW-Madison and the University of California at Santa Barbara. When Joe died in 1990, Betty stayed in close touch with many of his former students and colleagues in both Wisconsin and California.

It has been said that the combination of the Hirschfelders’ outgoing personalities had much to do with the success of the Theoretical Chemistry Institute. The couple helped to create a hospitable atmosphere of lively scientific exchange and cooperation, according to Bird, emeritus professor of chemical engineering.