Winifred Asprey interview: Overview
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On a separate page: Selected quotes from this interview
Brief background
Winifred (Tim) Asprey taught mathematics and computer science at Vassar College for 38 years and founded the Computer Science Department at Vassar in 1963. She pursued her undergraduate studies at Vassar, where one of her teachers was Grace Murray Hopper. She earned MS and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Iowa, in 1942 and 1945 respectively, and was one of only about 200 women to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from an American university during the 1940s. She retired from Vassar in 1982.
At the time of this interview, Dr. Asprey was Professor Emeritus of Vassar College. She passed away on October 19, 2007, at the age of 90.
Interview materials
This section includes the audio and transcript of the interview with Dr. Asprey, conducted on March 23, 2007 in Poughkeepsie, New York by Viera Proulx.
Audio of interview [2 hours 3 minutes]
PDF of interview transcript
[44 pages, 1,948 transcribed lines of text]
Other information about Winifred Asprey
- Vassar’s Computing Pioneer, article from Vassar Alumnae/i Quarterly, Fall 2005 volume 101 issue 4
- Women Becoming Mathematicians: Creating a Professional Identity in Post-World War II America
- Book by Margaret Anne Marie Murray (2001, MIT Press, ISBN 0262632462)
- Presents interviews with Dr. Asprey and 35 other women who earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics during the 1940s.
- Vassar College Libraries Archives and Special Collections finding aid for Dr. Asprey’s papers (circa 1920 to 2007)
- Dr. Asprey’s obituary from the Vassar Office of College Relations (via the Wayback Machine)
- Photo show assembled for Ms. Asprey’s memorial service by Baynard Bailey
- Wikipedia article about Winifred Asprey
Video clip
No video clip is available