Norma Etta Pfeiffer

Education She studied for her B.S. degree at the University of Chicago and it was awarded in 1909. She continued with doctoral research, with her Ph.D. awarded in 1913. During these studies she was elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and the Society of Sigma Xi. She described its habitat in wetlands surrounding Chicago's Lake Calumet. The type specimen was found in what was then a wet-mesic sand prairie at 119th Street and Torrence Avenue in what would become the industrial neighborhood of South Deering. The plant has not been seen since 1916, and the ground where it was observed has since been extensively altered by industrial development. The species is believed to be extinct.

Career University of North Dakota Before being awarded her doctorate, she was employed part-time at the University of North Dakota, and continued to hold an appointment in botany at the university for a decade. During the first year (1912–13) she also worked as governess to the daughters of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Melvin A. Brannon. She was appointed as assistant professor in botany in 1915 and associate professor in 1922. was the major result of this time and remained a standard reference into the twenty-first century. She undertook her teaching at University of North Dakota in the second semester, and then resigned. She was one of several faculty who were dissatisfied with the university's president, Thomas F. Kane, and this may have been a factor in her resignation. Pfeiffer then spent the rest of 1923 and part of 1924 on the family farm of a colleague, Zella Colvin, who had also resigned.

She lived in Yonkers, New York until moving to Dallas, Texas in her 90s, where she remained until her death.

Works