Alexandra Tillson Filer

Alexandra Tillson Filer (born 1916) is an American metallurgist and collector. She was among the first women to earn a degree in metallurgy, in 1938.

Alexandra Tillson Filer
Born
Alexandra Tillson

1916 (age 103–104)
Franklin, New Jersey, U.S.
Other namesAlexandra Tillson Taylor (after first marriage)
OccupationMetallurgist, mineral collector, bookseller
Known forCo-founder, Mineral of the Month Club

Early life and education

Alexandra Tillson was born in 1916 in Franklin, near Franklin Furnace, New Jersey. Her father Benjamin Franklin Tillson,[1] a Yale alumnus, was assistant superintendent of the New Jersey Zinc Company.[2][3] Her mother, Florence Rutherford Smith Tillson, was an alumna of Smith College.[4]

Tillson was a Girl Scout.[5] She attended Pennsylvania State College, enrolled in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences as a metallurgy major. She was the first woman to complete that course at Penn State,[6] when her degree was granted in 1938.[7]

Career

After college, with her husband Russell Filer, she founded the Mineral of the Month Club, sending mineralogical samples to schools and libraries, with concise information sheets to help educators, students, and collectors learn more about minerals.[7][8] They also ran a mineral shop in Redlands, California,[9] and specialty bookshop in Yucaipa, California, Geoscience Books & Prints.[10] In 1984, Filer was elected first president of the Geo-Literary Society at a Tucson meeting; the society was intended to gather those interested in "books, maps, drawings and related printed matter" about minerals, gems, and fossils.[11]

Filer amassed a comprehensive collection of over three thousand Western stock certificates over thirty years; images of the certificates have been published for research purposes in recent years.[8][12]

Personal life

Alexandra Tillson married twice. In 1938 she married a fellow Penn State student, James Alonzo Taylor.[13] She met geologist Russell Filer in California; they married in 1956.[14] As of 2014, they were retired and living in Yucaipa, California.[7][8] Her older brother Benjamin Franklin Tillson Jr. died in 2011, at age 96; Alexandra Filer and another sister, Diana R. Tillson, were mentioned as his survivors in an obituary.[15]

gollark: No.
gollark: This may require testing. It's not impossible that *somehow* `pcall` is using the "real" environment, but I have no idea what would cause htat.
gollark: ```lua -- if function is not from within the VM, return env from within sandbox function environment.getfenv(arg) local env if type(arg) == "number" then env = gf(arg + 1) else gf(arg) end if not env or env._HOST and string.find(env._HOST, "YAFSS") == nil then return gf() else return env end end```
gollark: Well, that's incredibly weird and I have no idea what causes that!
gollark: I'll have to check the... YAFSS, I think... code for getfenv?

References
  1. "B. F. Tillson Dies Suddenly". The Montclair Times. December 6, 1951. p. 6. Retrieved October 28, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. Yale University Sheffield Scientific School Class of 1905 (1910). Five Year Record: Class of Nineteen Hundred and Five Sheffield Scientific School. Compiled by William McKinley Barber. Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Press. p. 130. hdl:2027/coo1.ark:/13960/t9j39bj6w. OCLC 262630382.
  3. Tillson, Benjamin F. (1915). "The Testing and Application of Hammer Drills". Bulletin of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. The Institute. p. 505.
  4. Smith College Alumnae Association (1917). Annual Register of the Alumnae Association of Smith College ... with Report. p. 203.
  5. "Golden Eaglets Won by Scouts". The Montclair Times. February 20, 1934. p. 1. Retrieved October 28, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "First Girl in Penn State's Mineral Industry Course". The Evening News. October 20, 1934. p. 13. Retrieved October 28, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Craig, Patricia L. (May 6, 2014). "EMS' oldest living alumna looks back on making history at Penn State". Penn State News. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  8. Wilson, Wendell E. "Russell Filer (1921- )". Mineralogical Record, Biographical Archive. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  9. "Filers Hobby Develops into Brisk Business". Redlands Daily Facts. February 13, 1957. p. 4. Retrieved October 28, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Sheppard's Book Dealers in North America. Europa. 1996. p. 120.
  11. "Announcements" (PDF). Gems & Gemology. XX (SUMMER 1984): 122. ISSN 0016-626X.
  12. Holabird, Fred (2000). The Alexandra Tillson Filer collection: Alaska, Dakota, Idaho and other western states, including the William D. Miles Nevada collection, and the southern and eastern states : stocks, bonds, documents and photographs. Fred Holabird Americana.
  13. "Former Davenport Man Weds in East". The Daily Times. January 25, 1938. p. 8. Retrieved October 28, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Filer-Tillson (marriage announcement)". The San Bernardino County Sun. September 1, 1956. p. 21. Retrieved October 28, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. "Benjamin F. Tillson Jr". The Cape Codder. March 2, 2011. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
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