née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
'' Seifrit; January 27, 1933 – April 18, 2020) was an American professor of
nutrition
Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient n ...
. Her husband was military historian
Russell Weigley
Russell Frank Weigley ''(WY-glee)'' (July 2, 1930 – March 3, 2004) was the Distinguished University Professor of History at Temple University in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth ...
.
Early life
Emma Seifrit was born in
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Reddin'') is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Philade ...
. She graduated from
Albright College
Albright College is a private liberal arts college in Reading, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1856.
History
Albright College traces its founding to 1856 when Union Seminary opened. Present-day Albright was formed by the mergers of several ins ...
in 1954. She completed doctoral studies in nutrition at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
in 1971, with a thesis titled ''
Sarah Tyson Rorer
Sarah Tyson Rorer (18 October 1849 – 27 December 1937) was an American food writer and pioneer in the field of domestic science. Rorer has been described as the first American dietitian.
Biography
She was born at Richboro, Pennsylvania, daugh ...
(1849-1937), a Biographical Study''.
Career
Emma Seifrit was a clinical instructor in nutrition at Reading Hospital after college, and won an essay award from the
American Dietetic Association
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is a 501(c)(6) trade association in the United States. With over 112,000 members, the association claims to be the largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. It has registered dietitian nutr ...
in 1960. She taught home economics at Albright College and nutrition at
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, S ...
; she was also an adjunct professor of nursing at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
.
Publications by Weigley included "The High Fat Diet" (1963), "The Philadelphia Chef: Mastering the Art of Philadelphia Cookery" (1972), "'It might have been euthenics': The Lake Placid Conferences and the Home Economics Movement" (1974), "The Professionalization of Home Economics" (1976), ''Sarah Tyson Rorer: The Nation's Instructress in Dietetics and Cookery'' (1977), a biography based on her dissertation, "Infant Feeding Practices: A Century of Transitions" (1988), and ''Robinson's Basic Nutrition and Diet Therapy'' (1997), a textbook. She also co-edited ''Essays on History of Nutrition and Dietetics'' (1967) with E. Neige Todhunter, a collection of essays published on the fiftieth anniversary of the
American Dietetic Association
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is a 501(c)(6) trade association in the United States. With over 112,000 members, the association claims to be the largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. It has registered dietitian nutr ...
. The collection included her own essay, "Food in the days of the Declaration of Independence". Her collection of Sarah Tyson Rorer papers is housed at the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
library. She also wrote the article on Rorer for the ''
American National Biography
The ''American National Biography'' (ANB) is a 24-volume biographical encyclopedia set that contains about 17,400 entries and 20 million words, first published in 1999 by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Le ...
.''
Personal life and death
Emma Seifrit married Russell Weigley in 1963. They had two children, Jared and Catherine. Her husband died in 2004. She died from
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
in
South Philadelphia
South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south and the Schuylkill River to the west. Weigley was one of the thousand names included in ''The New York Times'' cover story on May 24, 2020, " U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, An Incalculable Loss".