Agnes Scott College

Grace Marie Bareis

Grace Bareis

December 19, 1875 - June 15, 1962


Born in Canal Winchester, Ohio. Received her A.B. degree (first honors) from Heidelberg College, Tifton, Ohio in 1897. She was a graduate student at Bryn Mawr College from 1897 to 1899 and also did graduate work at Columbia University. From 1902 until 1906 she taught mathematics and science at Miss Roney's School in Philadelphia, PA. She then became a graduate student at The Ohio State University, and in 1909 became the first person (male or female) to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from The Ohio State University. Her dissertation was on "Imprimitive Substitution Groups of Degree Sixteen" [Abstract], written under the supervision of Harry W. Kuhn and published by the Lancaster Press, Lancaster, PA. Bareis became an assistant professor of mathematics at The Ohio State University in 1908. She taught at Ohio State until her retirement in 1946. However, she continued to teach for two years after her retirement because of the shortage of mathematics instructors to teach the returning veterans.

In December, 1915, Bareis attended the organizational meeting for the purpose of establishing the Mathematical Association of America. It was at this meeting that the association's constitution and by-laws were approved. Bareis was a charter member of the Mathematical Association of America, as well as a member of the American Mathematical Society. In addition, she was also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1935 Bareis was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Heidelberg College.

In 1948 Bareis gave $2000 to The Ohio State University for a fund to award prizes on the basis of written contests open to sophomores at Ohio State. The first Grace M. Bareis Mathematical Prize was given in 1949. Information about the Bareis Competition is available at http://math.osu.edu/activities/competitions/rasor-bareis-gordon.

References

  1. Woman's Who's Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. John William Leonard, Editor-in-Chief, American Commonwealth Company, 1914.
  2. Helen Brewster Owens Papers. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College.
  3. Information from Ohio State University Mathematics Competition web site
  4. Author Profile at zbMath
  5. Mathematics Genealogy Project