Adeline Wachman, 98, formerly of Chestnut Hill, a teacher and philanthropist, died March 14 of congestive heart failure at the Hill at Whitemarsh in Lafayette Hill, where she had resided for eight years.
Mrs. Wachman was the widow of Marvin Wachman, who had been president of Lincoln and Temple universities.
Born in Decatur, Mich., she was raised in Aberdeen, S.D., and Urbana, Ill. She received a bachelor’s degree in theater from the University of Illinois, where she met her future husband.
When her husband served overseas during World War II, Mrs. Wachman worked in a war plant in Chicago that manufactured radio equipment for pilots.
After the war, while her husband was an American history professor at Colgate University for 13 years, she taught English and drama at Hamilton High School in Hamilton, N.Y., and acted in Colgate University productions and Gilbert and Sullivan shows.
After serving as director of the Salzburg Seminar in Austria for two years. Dr. Wachman returned to the United States in 1961 to become the first president of Lincoln University in Chester County. Mrs. Wachman became active in the League of Women Voters and was an advocate for civil rights and social reform. During this time, she traveled with her husband to Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa at the request of the State Department.
When her husband became vice president of Temple University in 1969 – and later president in 1973 – she visited the newly-established branch campuses of the university around the world. She remained active in social circles after her husband retired from Temple in 1983.
The Wachmans funded an endowed chair at Temple, a theater scholarship through the Philadelphia Foundation and student scholarships at Temple. She was an annual contributor to the Kennett Square Library, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood.
After her husband’s death in2007, she remained active, hiking, swimming, playing tennis and attending concerts by the Philadelphia Orchestra.
She is survived by daughters Lynn Alison Wachman and Katie Marie Wachman. A celebration of her life will be private.
