Roast the Scof

by Shonnie Finnegan

There were a number of women who, like Emily Webster, really devoted their entire careers to the university. Emily was the first woman in the country to achieve the rank of assistant vice president for business affairs at a major university. If you asked these women if they'd been discriminated against, they'd always say no.

But then you'd hear these stories.

Once, the chairman in psychology was leaving, and Olive Lester, the only woman faculty member, was in line to be chair. Olive was quite a tough cookie not at all obsequious; but apparently the outgoing chair, a man named Scofield, was trying to block her appointment. She eventually was named the first woman ever to be chair of a department at UB's College of Arts and Sciences.

When I went to her memorial service, someone told me that these women got their revenge. They used to get together and have these dinners often. They got a whole roast pig and they put it on the table, and put a bow tie on it. (Scofield always wore a bow tie.) At Olive Lester's memorial service, what this woman said was, "We roasted the Scof!"