Margaret Lenore Smith Hafner

1921 - 2014

Margaret Hafner, retired and living in Auburn, New York at the time of her death at age 93, was an Emeritus Professor of Education at the State University of New York. A pianist and organist as well as a singer and choral director, she was active in music throughout her life and was active in the SDA Church Musicians Guild, serving on its executive board and as a guild vice-president and president of the New York Conference chapter.

Margaret was one of eight children of Edd and Edith B. Smith. She graduated from Atlantic Union College in 1947, where she completed a degree in elementary education and also had her first lessons in piano and voice. While teaching in Syracuse, New York, she met and married her husband, D. William J. Hafner.

She taught in the San Bernardino, California, school system for five years while he attended medical school. They then returned to the East where he served as a surgeon in the U.S. Air Force and she taught at the base school where he was stationed.

Hafner taught in the Jordan-Elbridge school system in New York State. She completed an M.A. in reading education at Syracuse University in New York in 1962, and a Ph.D. there in that same field in 1968.

Hafner first taught at the elementary school level and then continued with teaching reading at all grade levels and serving as an elementary supervisor. She eventually became an associate professor of education for reading education and teacher training at SUNY Brockport and served as a guest lecturer and consultant in that field until her retirement in 1978.

She was an active member of the Auburn Adventist church where she served as organist, choir director, and soloist.

ds/2005/2014

Sources: Short biography in a SDA Church Musicians Guild publication of unknown date; Review and Herald, 22 May 1975, 3; Application form for membership in the International Adventist Musicians Association, June 1985; Obituary for her mother, Edith Smith, The Columbia Union Visitor, 15 February 1986, 15; Obituary, Bush Funeral Home (Syracuse) Guestbook, January, 2014.