Pauline Maier (1938–2013)

Pauline Rubbelke was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her original ambition was to be a newspaper reporter. At Radcliffe College, she wrote for The Harvard Crimson, where she met her future husband, Charles S. Maier, and worked summers at the Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass. After graduation, Pauline and Charles both went to England for further study, she as a Fulbright Scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science. After completing their fellowships, they married and eventually had three children. Back at Harvard University to pursue her PhD degree, Pauline Maier was drawn to the study of the 18th century and the American Revolutionary War era. She taught at the University of Massachusetts Boston for nine years, and for a year at the University of Wisconsin before joining the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978 as Kenan Professor of American History. In 1998, she won MIT's Killian Award, given annually to a senior member of the faculty for outstanding achievement. She also was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was the 2011 President of the Society of American Historians. Pauline Maier is the author of numerous scholarly articles and books, including From Resistance to Revolution (1972).