Career
She worked for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service from 1918 to 1961, serving as a Biological Aide, Biologist and Systematic Zoologist. Stationed at the Smithsonian Institution throughout her career, she also served as the curator for the North American mammal collection in the National Museum of Natural History. Viola South. Shantz was born in 1895 in Salisbury Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania to parents John and Laura Shantz.
She died in May 1977 at the age of 82 in the District of Columbia. on April 3–4, 1919.
Shantz served as treasurer for the organization for twenty-two consecutive years, from 1930 to 1952, and was the first woman to serve as the chair of the Local Committee for the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in 1959. She co-authored a comprehensive catalog of the mammal specimens in the collections of the United States National Museum, which was published in 1942.