In Memoriam: Evelyn Erika Handler (1933-2011)

Evelyn E. Handler, the first woman president of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and the first woman president of the University of New Hampshire, was killed after being struck by a car while on a street in Bedford, New Hampshire. She was 78 years old.

Dr. Handler served as president of the University of New Hampshire from 1980 to 1983. She was then named president of Brandeis University and served in that position until 1991. Later in her career she was a research fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and served a three-year term as the executive director of the California Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Handler was a graduate of Hunter College of the City University of New York. She held a law degree from Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire. She also earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. at New York University.