Persona

Rife, Clarence White

1888-1970

Clarence White Rife was born on May 17, 1888 in Hespler, Ontario. Following his graduation from the Galt Collegiate Institute in 1906, he moved to Saskatchewan to homestead near Foam Lake. In 1910, he leased his homestead and moved to Saskatoon, where he attended the Saskatoon Business College, worked part-time, and began his studies at the University of Saskatchewan. He graduated with a BA in history and political science (1914), and spent 1915-1917 as a teacher in Swift Current, Saskatchewan before pursuing his MA from the University of Toronto (1918). He spent 1918-1919 as a sessional lecturer at Queen’s University prior to enrolling at Yale, from which he earned his PhD in 1922. He then began his career as Professor of History at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. By 1927, he became chair of the department, a role he continued for nearly thirty years. He retired in 1956 and was named Professor Emeritus. Rife co-founded the Hamline University Institute of World Affairs, served as financial director for the Minnesota Student Project for Amity Among Nations (SPAN), was an active member of the Ramsey County Historical Society, and was active in the Hamline Methodist Church, serving as chair of its Historical Committee. He met Margaret Strang (BA 1913) while at the University of Saskatchewan; they married in 1919 and she earned her MA at Yale (1921). Rife died on November 21, 1970 in St. Paul, Minnesota.