UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #665
BENDER, MARGARET

BENDER, Margaret (1916- )
Project Associate, Meteorology; Associate Scientist, Center for Climatic Research; Senior Scientist, Environmental Studies, Center for Climate Research
At UW: 1963-1981

Interviewed: 	2004	
Interviewers: 	Barry Teicher and Martha Casey
Length: 	31 minutes
Series:		Women in Science and Engineering

Early years and family life; Study of chemistry at Mount Holyoke and Yale University; Marriage and arrival in Madison; Center for Climatic Research and University of Wisconsin Radiocarbon Lab; Joseph and Betty Hirschfelder; Retirement.

First Interview Session (March 4, 2004): Digital File (Tape 1)

Time	Keywords
00:00:00	Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction

00:00:23	[Begin Tape 1/Side 1] Margaret Bender talks about growing up in East Hampton, Massachusetts, and mentions some teachers and subjects she enjoyed in school.

00:02:06	She describes her family and her parents' encouragement of her academic aspirations. 

00:02:47	She explains why she chose to attend Mount Holyoke, where she majored in chemistry, and how she funded her college education.  Her professor of organic chemistry, Dorothy Hahn, was especially influential and helped MB secure a scholarship at Yale. She graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1937 and continued there to receive a masters degree in 1939.

00:05:23	She recollects her experiences of the Depression years at Yale.

00:06:10	After receiving her Master’s degree from Mount Holyoke, she wanted to travel abroad and had lined up a job in Istanbul to teach in a women's college.  The outbreak of the Second World War, however, prevented her from going to Istanbul.

00:07:57	She pursued a PhD in organic chemistry at Yale University from 1939-41.  There were no women faculty there and only one other female graduate student.  She also met her husband while at Yale.

00:11:49	After graduating from Yale, she taught chemistry for a year at the Connecticut College for Women.  Thereafter, she worked as a researcher for a chemist.

00:13:22	She married her husband, Paul, in Cleveland, Ohio.  They moved to Madison in 1943 when he accepted a temporary position at the University of Wisconsin; he later became a permanent hire and worked in the chemistry instrumentation lab.

00:16:46	MB worked in the Center for Climatic Research and taught chemistry to nurses for UW Extension.  She was the first director (1963-1981) of the UW Radiocarbon Lab and researched radiocarbon dating.

00:21:00	She talks about her office in the Meteorology Building.

00:21:35	MB mentions that she published numerous papers on radiocarbon dating.

00:22:56	She describes Joe and Betty Hirschfelder and Joe's role in getting the job for her husband at the University of Wisconsin.

00:25:34	She talks about her jobs in Madison and the eventual closure of the Radiocarbon Lab.

00:27:19	Her husband convinced her to retire, although she did so reluctantly.

00:30:00	She talks about her post-retirement contacts with the Radiocarbon Lab and describes her successor as director of the lab.

00:31:28	End of First Interview Session

End of Interview #665