Ruth Benedict
Ruth Benedict PhD '23 was one of the leading early lights of Columbia's Anthropology Department. Educated at Vassar, she entered the department as a grad student in 1919, studied under Franz Boas and later mentored (and is rumored to have had an erotic relationship with) Margaret Mead. Benedict was appointed an associate professor in 1936. She advanced to the rank of full professor only two months before her death in 1948.
