September 30, 1982

Classicist Marion Tait, dean of the faculty from 1948 until 1965, holder for many years of the Sarah Gibson Blanding Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences and leader of several curricular initiatives, died after a long illness. During Tait’s tenure as dean she oversaw the return to the four-year bachelor’s degree—shortened to three years during World War II. Instituting a new collegial relationship between the dean’s office and the faculty, Tait supported Vassar’s participation in the “Five-College Project,” a collaborative study of problems and prospects for teacher training within the liberal arts curriculum involving Vassar, Colgate, Cornell, Brooklyn College and the State University of New York at Fredonia that led to the creation of Vassar’s innovative department of education in 1971.

Professor Tait returned to the dean’s office in 1970-72 after the resignation in January 1970 of Dean Nell Eurich. She retired from teaching in 1977.