Laura Sumner

Laura Bennett Sumner ( Voelkel; September 5, 1921 – June 18, 1993) was an American classical numismatist and poet, who was a professor at the University of Mary Washington.

Biography Laura Bennett Voelkel was born in 1921 in Brooklyn, New York to John and Laura (Bennett) Voelkel. She studied for her undergraduate degree at Vassar College and graduated in 1942.

In 1945 Sumner was appointed as Assistant Professor of History of Art at Wesleyan College in Georgia, where she taught for two years. This meant that she did not publish widely.

However, she did work on both the excavations in 1963 and the subsequent catalogue of the coins from Kenchreai. She was passionate about the ability that numismatics had to "make the past come alive for students". Other publications included a commentary on the Lusiads. She was also involved with Mary Washington's archaeology society.

Sumner also held multiple Visiting Fellowships at universities in the USA, including: University of Wisconsin, University of Iowa, and Humanities Institute, Fairfax. She was first elected in 1945. President (1970–71), Vice-President (1958-60) - Southern Section of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South.

Personal life In addition to her classical scholarship, Sumner also wrote and published poetry. She married Raiford Eve Sumner on December 20, 1953. She died on June 18, 1993, aged 71, in Fredericksburg, Virginia.