Alberta Lamphear

click here for ancestors click here for descendants

Librarian ~ Author ~ Socialite



photo of Alberta

She was born Alberta Elizabeth Springer on January 24, 1920, in Chester, Pennsylvania, when her sister Sara was ten years old.   Her father, Albert, was an engineer for DuPont, and her mother Mary, a housewife.

The Springer family frequently vacationed at the Jersey shore in Ocean City.   Alberta's love of Ocean City continued throughout her life.   As a college student, she spent summers there working at the Chatterbox Restaurant.

She graduated with a bachelors in English Education from Beaver College, now named Arcadia University, in 1941.   During World War II, she worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

In 1946, she married Harry Lamphear *.   The couple moved with their two small daughters in 1951 from Chester to Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, where she eventually worked as a substitute teacher.   In 1957, they moved to Wallingford, Pennsylvania.

When she decided to seek full-time work in 1958, she found an opening for a librarian at Smedley Junior High School in Chester.   She thoroughly enjoyed library work and earned a masters equivalent in Library Science at Drexel Institute in Philadelphia.   In 1962, she accepted the position of librarian at the brand new Indian Lane Junior High School in Media, Pennsylvania.   She retired from there in 1980.

Upon retirement, Harry and Bert, as her friends called her, moved to Ocean City, New Jersey.   In 1989, they moved to Beesley's Point, across the bay.   During retirement, she was free to pursue her life-long hobbies, which included gardening, antiquing, bridge games, genealogy, and travel.

A fascination with history led her to join the Ocean City Historical Society in 1981.   She served there faithfully as a volunteer librarian and board member.   After assembling photographs of the 1901 sinking of the ship, The Sindia, on an Ocean City beach, she compiled them and other facts about Ocean City into a booklet, "The Saga of the Sindia".   To purchase a copy, visit the Ocean City Historical Society Museum.

Other memberships included:

She died May 23, 1999, in Beesley's Point and is buried in Chester Rural Cemetery.

* Harry Lamphear's family tree has been beautifully compiled and presented by his great-niece, Gail Faries. Harry's father, Harry Augustus Lamphear, was the brother of Helen Grace Lamphear, Gail's grandmother.

© 2001 - 2007 research and site design by Carolyn Friedberg

Ancestry   |   Descendants