What special women are in your history?(women educators)

Flirting with joining the Hallmark generation of which my mother was a card-carrying member, I've begun to pay more attention to national holidays.

March is National Women's History month, a natural opportunity for women to reflect on their foremothers, both public and private. We can use its special designation to pay personal tribute to the women in our own histories who have had major influences on us over the years. Who are those special women in your history? Here are a few of mine.

Formal teachers

Nowhere is there a stronger influence on the human mind than in the teaching profession, where people get paid to mess with others' minds, widening their perspective and serving as role models.

* Miss Pfeiffer was a 50-year-old teacher of chemistry to high school juniors in Waukesha WI. Although her deep brown eyes and sharp nose reminded me of a hawk, her droll wit and no-nonsense approach made chemistry almost enjoyable. Making it even more interesting was sharing an assigned table-for-two in class with my future husband.

Miss Pfeiffer was always short of matches, required for lighting the Bunsen burners, so I decided to add to the supply. Miss Pfeiffer was unfazed when I presented her with a whole box of matches from Soddy's Bar, complete with the pin-ups on the back, which she used in class.

* At college in the 1960s, I found women professors were rare, but female resident assistants were required in each university housing unit. A grad student resident named Diane was my angel in the dorm, able to handle the huge task of rubbing more than a few rough edges off me as a first-year student. She must have been preparing for a career in counseling, because she managed to make me at least half-way presentable to an academic world.