Martha Suzanne Shaffer
Martha Suzanne Shaffer was born December 4, 1956, in Wembo Nyama, Kasai Province in what was then called the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). With parents who served as teachers for the Methodist Board of Missions and later in the U.S. Foreign Service Martha grew up in Colorado Vietnam Washington D.C. Nigeria and the Philippines where she graduated from the International School of Manila. She received her B.A. in Music from Indiana University in 1974 and she spent a year studying in Strasbourg, France receiving a diploma from the Institut d'Études Françaises in 1979. She returned to Washington D.C. and worked for two years as an insurance underwriter before moving to Tucson where her brother Harrison lived. She joined the staff of the ASUA Bookstore at the University of Arizona in 1982 and held the position of assistant manager of the bookstore's Distribution Center when she passed away. Martha received Master of Arts in Information Resources and Library Science from the University of Arizona in May 1999 which she achieved while working full-time. Martha's life was filled with an enjoyment of music art languages reading and cinema and she was a serious student of astrology tarot and other spiritual pursuits.