Nef, Evelyn Stefansson, 1913-2009

Evelyn Stefansson Nef, also known as Evelyn Baird, (b. Evelyn Schwartz, July 24, 1913, New York City-d. December 10, 2009, Washington, D.C.), puppeteer, author, Arctic explorer, researcher, librarian, philanthropist, and psychotherapist, was the wife of fellow Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson. After Stefansson's death, she married John Ulrich Nef, economic historian from the University of Chicago. She began a practice in psychotherapy in Washington, D.C., at the age of 63.

Married Vilhjalmur Stefansson in 1941; after his death in 1962 married, in 1964, John Ulric Nef.

Evelyn Stefansson Nef was born on July 24, 1913 to Bella Klein and Jenӧ Schwartz of Brooklyn. She had two older sisters, Rosalind and Julie, and a younger brother Myron. Her father died when she was 11, and Evelyn's emotionally fragile mother went mute from grief. Evelyn attended Washington Irving High School where she developed an interest in puppetry and marionettes. (The Schwartzes were a talented bunch; Julie went on to perform with the Ziegfeld Follies under the name Julie Jenner.)

With her mother unable to care for the family, Evelyn spent much of her time in her late teens in Greenwich Village, where she met artists, writers, and dancers, and was briefly involved with architect Buckminster Fuller. In 1932 she married puppeteer Bil Baird and began performing with his marionette theatre. Though she and Baird divorced after 4 years, she continued to perform through the end of the1930s.

In 1941, Evelyn married Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, 30 years her senior. During their marriage she served as a secretary and research assistant to Stefansson, and they amassed a large library of material on polar and subpolar regions. The Stefanssons and their library moved to Dartmouth College in 1951, where Vilhjalmur taught and Evelyn both taught and served as librarian for his collection. Evelyn herself wrote several books on polar geography and from 1969 to 1971 served as president of the Society of Women Geographers.

After Vilhjalmur Stefansson died in 1962, Evelyn moved to Washington D.C. to work for the American Sociological Association. In 1964 she met John U. Nef, Jr., professor in (and founder of) the interdisciplinary Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He proposed five days later and they were married in April of that year. Through Nef, Evelyn met such cultural and artistic luminaries as Saul Bellow and Marc Chagall, with whom the Nefs vacationed in France. In 1971, Chagall designed a mosaic for the Nef's garden.

In the 1970s Evelyn studied psychoanalysis and opened her own practice in Washington. She served on various boards, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Washington Opera, the MacDowell Colony, and the International Longevity Center. The Nefs were prominent at social events and in the society pages through the 1960s and 1970s, and into the 1980s. John Nef died in 1988.

Evelyn Nef's life did not slow down after the death of her third husband. She continued to host musical evenings at her Georgetown home, whose guests included Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Her philanthropic work continued as well.

Between 1998 and 2002 Nef was awarded three honorary doctorates and the Icelandic Order of the Falcon Medal of Honor. Her autobiography, Finding My Way, the Autobiography of an Optimist, was published in 2002. Nef died of cancer on December 10, 2009.