Background
Suzan Benedict was born in Norwalk, Ohio, the youngest of seven children of David DeForrest Benedict, Doctor of Medicine and Harriott Melvina Benedict (née Deaver).
Suzan Benedict was born in Norwalk, Ohio, the youngest of seven children of David DeForrest Benedict, Doctor of Medicine and Harriott Melvina Benedict (née Deaver).
She graduated in 1895 with a major in Chemistry and minors in mathematics, German, and physics, then returned to Norwalk and taught mathematics until 1905, when she began graduate studies at Teacher’s College, Columbia University.
Doctor Benedict had been a Union Surgeon in the American Civil War. She was a niece of oil magnate and philanthropist, Louis Severance. After graduating high school in Norwalk, Suzan Benedict entered Smith College in 1891.
She received a Master of Arts in Mathematics from Columbia in 1906.
That same year she joined the Mathematics Department at Smith College as an assistant in mathematics and rose to become an instructor the following year. Suzan returned to Smith as an associate professor after receiving her Doctor of Philosophy. She was promoted to professor in 1921.
From 1918 to 1928 she was Dean of Students and she served as chairman of the Mathematics department from 1928 to 1934. Her first love was teaching.
In May 1940 she wrote to Helen Owens, an instructor in mathematics at Pennsylvania State College: "it was not modesty that prevented my sending you a long list of published papers, but a scarcity of such papers.
I have lost track of the very few I have written, as I have been much more interested in teaching and administration than in research." In February 1942 she retired as professor emeritus, intending to support the war effort by volunteering with the Red Cross. Two months later, she was stricken with a heart attack and died. Suzan Benedict never married.
American Mathematical Society Mathematical Association of America Daughters of the American Revolution Benedict Prize was established after her death by the college president and others at Smith College to be awarded to sophomores who had done exceptional work in differential and integral calculus.
American Mathematical Society
Mathematical Association of America
Daughters of the American Revolution.