Penn Biographies

William Ashmead Schaeffer (1846-1907)

• A.B. 1865, A.M. 1868
• Member of Philo

Lutheran clergyman

William Ashmead Schaeffer was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on March 26, 1846, the son of Rev. Charles William Schaeffer (1813-1896), A.B. 1832, D.D. 1879, and Elizabeth Fry Ashmead. The elder Schaeffer was Professor of German at the University while his son was a student.

William Schaeffer entered the University in 1861 as a member of the Class of 1865. While at Penn, he was a member of the Philomathean Society.

A Lutheran clergyman, Schaeffer served as pastor of St. Stephens Church in Philadelphia. He was married to Elizabeth Herster Thompson. He died on July 27, 1907, in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.