from the April 20, 1994 issue of The Country Chronicle
Hanover, N.H. – Paul R. “Dick” Shafer, a professor emeritus of chemistry at Dartmouth who lived in Enfield, died Wednesday of cardiac arrest at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. An organic chemist who specialized in nuclear magnetic resonance, Shafer was a member of the Dartmouth faculty from 1952 ton1988. He served as chair of the division of sciences, 1961-64; chair of the chemistry department, 1967-69; and associate dean for the sciences, 1969-1973. Shafer, who spent 1959-1960 as a National Science Foundation fellow at the California Institute of Technology, was responsible for the establishment of a nuclear magnetic resonance laboratory at Dartmouth in the mid-1960s. He also served on the college’s science center building committee during the construction of the Sherman Fairchild Physical Sciences Center in the 1970s.
An avid outdoorsman, Shafer enjoyed backpacking, rock climbing, sailing and skiing. In the 1970s, he taught rock climbing to numerous Dartmouth students and was an adviser to the student mountaineering cub. During a leave of absence in 1973-74, Shafer led a four vehicle safari on a 25,000 mile trip which nearly circumnavigated Africa from Tunisia to Ethiopia. His three sons were among those accompanying him on the journey.
Shafer was born June 17, 1923, in Springfield, Ohio. He completed his undergraduate work at Oberlin College in 1947 and earned a doctor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1951. He served as pilot for the U.S. Air Force in World War II and was later a captain in the Wisconsin Air National Guard.
He is survived by a brother, Bill of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, a sister, Sue Keebler of Kirtland, Ohio, three sons, Michael of Highland Park, N.J.; Timothy of Townsend, VT; and Andrew of Enfield; and seven grandchildren.
There will be no funeral nor visiting hours. A memorial service will be scheduled later this spring.