Marion Kayhart, professor emerita of biology at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, passed away on May 15. She was 98 years old.
A graduate of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, Dr. Kayhart received her master’s degree and doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was the only woman in her Ph.D. cohort. During her doctoral studies, she researched the effects of hydrogen bombs on wasps.
Before her four-decades-long career at Cedar Crest College, Dr. Kayhart had stints as a part-time instructor at Drew University, an assistant professor of biology at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia, and an assistant instructor in genetics at the University of Pennsylvania. She also participated in a prestigious National Science Foundation program at Harvard Medical School.
In 1954, she began her tenure at Cedar Crest College as chair of the biology department. She developed several academic programs, including genetic engineering technology, nuclear medicine technology, and environmental studies. After her retirement in 1993, Dr. Kayhart became the first faculty member ever elected to Cedar Crest’s board of trustees. In recognition of her many contributions to the college, Cedar Crest recently established the Dr. Marion Kayhart Endowed Professorship in Biological Sciences in her honor.
I am so glad Dr. Kayhart lived to be 98 years young!! She was an amazingly intelligent woman and an excellent professor of biology!!!! It was because of her wonderful and very interesting lectures and her warm and caring personality, that I switched my major to biology. After graduation, I married my partner for life, Leo Patrick O’Connell who graduated from the United States Military Academ at West Point, NY. As he was medical student at Stanford University in California, I moved to CA and was employed as a research assistant in the Department of Pathology. My job included working with the electron microscope; including cutting tissues, angstroms thick, to be studied by the pathologist. My job also included working with and filming viruses to be studied. The doctor I worked with, Dr. Lloyd Silverman, was an intelligent and very nice person. We also had people from other countries,
England and Norway in my lab as well. So both my job; and the people I worked with, were rewarding and motivating. So due to Dr. Kayhart’s inspiring personality, I had an inspiring career in biology! I will forever be grateful that I knew such a fantastic professor from Cedar Crest College!!!!