Remembering Anna Wheeler

Your Princeton Portrait about Emmy Noether and Anna Wheeler in the January issue was unexpectedly personal.

After her retirement from Bryn Mawr, Professor Wheeler maintained contact with students, hosting them for tea at her house and as guests at her cabin in the Adirondacks. This included Bryn Mawr class of 1961 physics majors Jean Hebb and Melinda Flory (my future wife), as well as Clara McKee. Clara was an English major, but her mother, Ruth Stauffer McKee, had gotten her Ph.D. at Bryn Mawr under the supervision of Emmy Noether. Noether died unexpectedly after surgery in 1935 at age 53, before the doctorate was awarded. We understand that the work was completed under Professor Wheeler.

The photo above of Professor Wheeler is from a garden party to celebrate Clara, Jean, and Melinda’s graduation. I obtained it from Jean Hebb Swank, who tells me it was taken by math student Carol Duddy. The slightly cut figure on the left is Melinda’s father, Paul Flory, who would win the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1974. The cut figure on the right is Melinda’s sister Susan, Bryn Mawr ’59 (mathematics).

Melinda somehow inherited Anna Wheeler’s teapot, which we eventually returned to Bryn Mawr. My own memories from Melinda were supplemented by Susan Flory Springer and Jean Hebb Swank.