Born: 19 December 1875, United States
Died: 15 June 1962
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
American mathematician Grace Marie Bareis was the first person to receive a doctorate in mathematics from Ohio State University (OSU), where she taught for almost 40 years before retiring in 1946.
Born and raised less than 20 miles away in Canal Winchester, Bareis attended Heidelberg University, completing her undergraduate degree in 1897. She went on to do graduate work at Bryn Mawr College and Columbia University, then taught at Miss Roney’s School in Philadelphia for six years before returning to Bryn Mawr and then enrolling at OSU in 1906. She completed her Ph.D three years later, with a dissertation titled “Imprimitive Substitution Groups of Degree Sixteen.”
Bareis had taken an assistant professor position in 1908 while completing her doctorate, and was apparently never promoted over the subsequent 38 years, though she held other positions like teaching math to World War II veterans in the “Army Specialized Training Program,” continuing to do so even after retiring due to a shortage of math teachers. Bareis also volunteered with the American Red Cross and served on Heidelberg’s Board of Trustees; the university’s Bareis Hall of Science is named in her honor. In 1949, she donated $2,000 to OSU to fund a competition between students, and the Grace M. Bareis Mathematical Prize has been held annually since. She was also a founding member of the Mathematical Association of America.
Shortly after retiring, Bareis (who had never married) began living with Margaret F. Jones, described as a “friend and colleague.” The women lived together for 26 years until Bareis’s death in 1962.