About Paul R. Shafer
An organic chemist who specialized in NMR and built the department's first NMR spectrometer, Professor Shafer was a member of the faculty from 1952 to 1988 and was Professor Emeritus at the time of his death in 1994. He served as chair of the division of sciences, chair of the chemistry department, and associate dean for the sciences here, and during World War II, he was a bomber pilot in the Army Air Force who survived having his aircraft downed over Africa. An avid outdoorsman, Shafer enjoyed backpacking, rock climbing, sailing and skiing. In the 1970s, he taught rock climbing to numerous Dartmouth students and was an adviser to the student mountaineering club. During a leave of absence in 1973-74, Shafer led a four-vehicle safari on a 25,000-mile trip which nearly circumnavigated Africa from Tunisia to Ethiopia. His three sons were among those accompanying him on the journey.
