William Wistar Comfort

William Wistar Comfort was president of Haverford College.

Life

Comfort was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania and raised a Quaker. He graduated from Haverford College in 1894 and received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1902 with the dissertation "The Development of the Character Types in the French Chansons de Geste". Later he translated from Old French four 12th-century Arthurian Romances by Chrétien de Troyes and the 13th-century Queste del Saint Graal . He was a polymath, with other written works on such topics as Quakerism, children's literature, and the poet William Cowper.
Comfort served as President of Haverford College for 23 years, from 1917 to 1940, and was succeeded by journalist Felix Morley.
He continued teaching until 1953, and died at his home on campus in 1955. He was survived by his wife of 53 years, Mary, five children, and several grandchildren, including a mathematician named after him. His personal papers are held at Haverford.