The Quiet Alumna

Frugally, quietly, and keeping her own counsel, Mary Clarke lived the uneventful life of a New England spinster. In 1947 she made her will, and in 1950, at 90, she died. Last week, surprised Smith College officials had good reason to wonder what sort of woman she had been. Spinster Clarke had seen no need to bother the college at the time, but in her will she directed that some $200,000 be held and invested by a Rhode Island bank until it grew to $400,000, then given to Smith. By last week, when Smith got the belated news, the Clarke bequest had grown to $430,000 and was ready to be turned over to the college.

Why Mary Clarke chose to make Smith her principal heir and how she was able to amass $200,000 are questions as puzzling to acquaintances in Whitinsville, Mass. (pop. 8,000), where she was born, and Kingston, R.I., where she died, as they are to Smith fund raisers. The daughter of a Whitinsville doctor, she attended Smith in 1879-80 as a sophomore (she had studied previously at Wellesley), then dropped out. Smith's records show that she made "very high" marks in history and natural history, did satisfactorily in her other subjects. But for some reason she left school after a year. Shortly afterward, she is known to have taught music in Cape Town, South Africa. By the turn of the century she was back in Whitinsville, giving piano lessons. In 1906 she sold the house her parents had left her for $15,000, because she needed money. By 1913 she had taken rooms at a local inn and was working as town librarian (combined annual salaries for Miss Clarke and her assistant: $941.80).

Between World Wars I and II, Mary Clarke lived in Europe, told friends she did so because costs there were low. "She always gave you the impression that she had to be very careful with money," says a friend. It is Smith's good fortune that Alumna Clarke was careful--and that at Smith something happened to the quiet, 20-year-old college girl, memorable enough to stay bright for seven decades.

To Harvard University, which must bag some $27,000,000 more by June to meet the $82,500,000 goal of its Program for Harvard College (TIME, Nov. 26, 1956), came the largest gift so far from an individual donor: $2,000,000 for scholarships. The anonymous giver, who went through Harvard on a scholarship, regards the huge sum, said President Nathan M. Pusey, as "only partial payment" for his education. To other men of parts who once had scholarships, Pusey observed that the college needs more such partial payments.

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