Smith
Alumna Fondly Remembered
Roselle Hoffmaster ’98,
who died on September 20 while serving as a surgeon in
the U.S. Army in Iraq, was honored by several hundred
people during a memorial service on September 29 in West
Chester, Pennsylvania. Those who knew her in the Smith
community fondly remember her. Mary Harrington, the Tippit
Professor in Life Sciences, offers this:
By Mary Harrington
As a professor at Smith
College, I have met many outstanding students over the
years, but none with the mix of phenomenal abilities and
pure heart of Roselle Hoffmaster ’98. Roselle
was smarter and more capable than the rest of us, and she
held an almost tender benevolence toward others. She did
not ask anyone else to work to the high standards she herself
was working to achieve. Her standards had nothing to do with
the awards that were continually bestowed upon her; she honestly
didn’t care much for those. In the way she enjoyed
running track, her pleasure came from working to achieve
her own personal best.
Roselle discovered her
affinity for scientific research as an undergraduate, working
with myself and other Smith professors on experiments in
biochemistry and neuroscience. She
chose a career in medicine because it could provide the challenges
she loved, with the selfless service to others that gave
her deep satisfaction. Roselle loved nature, and hiked 1,000
miles of the Appalachian Trail in the summer after her Smith
graduation. She met her future husband in a research lab
during the summer after her junior year, and their loving
marriage allowed her many enjoyable adventures.
Roselle called me in August
to say she was going to be deployed to Iraq. She had not
expected to be deployed so soon, although I later found
out that she had volunteered to take a posting overseas,
to spare the others from her internal medicine residency
class, some of whom had small children. She and I talked
at length about how a Smith education interacts with the
military environment. There were challenges, but none that
she could not surmount with her practical and calm approach.
It was a horrible shock for
her friends and family to hear that Roselle died in Iraq
Sept. 20, 2007. We have all lost an amazing human being.
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Tribute to the late Roselle Hoffmaster 
