Former Dean of the Undergraduate College Mary Maples Dunn Dies at Age 85

The below message was sent by President Cassidy on March 21.

Dear members of the faculty and staff:

It is with great sadness that I share the news that Mary Maples Dunn Ph.D. ’59, former Professor of History, Dean of the Undergraduate College, and Academic Deputy to the President, passed away on March 19. Mary was a member of the Bryn Mawr community from 1954, when she arrived as a graduate student following her undergraduate studies at William and Mary, until she was named president of Smith College in 1985. She was president of Smith from 1985-1995, where she combined wisdom and humor in leading Smith through a period of economic and social challenges. Following her tenure at Smith, she was Director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Radcliffe, led Radcliffe through its merger with Harvard and the founding of the Radcliffe Institute, and served as co-chief executive officer of the American Philosophical Society with her husband, fellow historian Richard Dunn.

Throughout her academic and administrative career, she and Richard were scholarly collaborators as general editors of the collected papers of William Penn, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

As a scholar and a teacher, Mary was an important contributor to the emergence of women’s history as a field of serious scholarly importance. During her 1972-1975 tenure as president of the Berkshire Conference for Women Historians, the conference organized major meetings that helped transform the discipline. The 1974 Conference prompted the New York Times headline “The Woman in History Becomes an Explosive Issue in the Present.”

At Bryn Mawr she taught colonial American history, women in American history, and Latin American history; in 1969 she received the Lindback Award for excellence in teaching. In addition to her co-general editorship of the Penn papers, she was author of William Penn: Politics and Conscience, editor of Alexander von Humboldt’s Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, and author of many articles. She was a Fulbright Fellow; received research grants from ACLS, NEH, and the Newberry Library; and was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. 

Smart, witty, and full of fun, Mary was an important voice for women’s advancement and for the value of the liberal arts. She was both a force (very little could even slow her down) and a light (acting with wisdom, integrity, and grace). While she was a very effective leader who did not back away from hard decisions, she had a humane and generous spirit.  She was a wonderful colleague to many, and a great friend of Bryn Mawr. In submitting her formal resignation from Bryn Mawr she wrote, “I hereby resign my job but one cannot resign the place!”  We are fortunate to have counted her as a member of this community.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced. Condolences and remembrances may be addressed to Mary’s husband Richard S. Dunn, 1010 Memorial Drive, Apt. 17C, Cambridge, MA  02138.