Inthe In the recently published volume from the History of Mathematics series, Pioneering women in American mathematics: the pre-1940 PhD'Ph.D.s, JudyGreen and Jeanne LaDuke tell the story of Fanny Boyce, one of the fewprefew pre-1940s female PhDs Ph.D.s in mathematics.
Fannie W. Boyce was born March 16, 1897 near Lentner, Missouri(Shelby County). As a child she moved with her parents, George Wesleyand Mary Virginia Boyce, and siblings to Colorado. Boyce attended gradeschool grade school while in Colorado Springs before the family moved to UniversityParkUniversity Park, Iowa where she attended high school and began college. Sheattended She attended Central Holiness College (later named John Fletcher Collegeand College and then owned by Vennard College).
After college she began her teaching career, initially in Iowa highschools. Maintaining her connection to the Quakers, Boyce ceasedteaching ceased teaching to obtain a second bachelor's degree from Penn College. Whenfinished When finished she restarted her teaching career by teaching at OlivetUniversity Olivet University and Marion College, Nazarene and Wesleyan Methodist schoolsrespectivelyschools respectively. She taught mathematics and Greek. She continued herstudies her studies and obtained a master's degree from the University of Wisconsinin 1928. While teaching at Wheaton College she obtained a doctoraldegree doctoral degree from the University of Chicago in 1938.
Boyce had begun teaching in 1930 and rose through the ranks to fullprofessorfull professor. She retired in 1962. She then returned to Olivet (now OlivetNazarene Olivet Nazarene University) and taught mathematics for seven years. In 1970she 1970 she taught another year at Owosso College in Michigan. She retired toWheatonto Wheaton, Illinois. She died in February 13, 1986 at a health carecenter in nearby Lombard. |