Alice Bidwell (1878-1967) was born November 14, 1878, in Freeport, Illinois. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Mt. Holyoke College in 1899 and returned to Freeport to teach in the high school where she was the Head of the English Department from 1906-1918. In 1911, she received her Master of Arts from Columbia University. In 1919 she became a teacher of English at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

She started her career at Butler University in September 1920. Alice and Professor Thor Griffith Wesenberg, also of the Butler faculty, were married in 1921. They went to Cambridge for the summer where Mr. Wesenberg finished his doctorate at Harvard University.

Mrs. Wesenberg continued teaching English, Comparative Literature, and Poetry at Butler until 1947, becoming Assistant Professor in 1921 and Associate Professor in 1941.

Among her professional interests and activities were memberships in the Modern Language Association, the College English Association, and the American Association of University Professors; at the same time her community connections included the Indianapolis Women’s Club, the Contemporary Club, the Propylaeum, the League of Women Voters, and the English-Speaking Union. Her extracurricular and related campus endeavors were given to the Poetry Club, Sigma Tau Delta, being sponsor of the Scarlet Quill, and director of literary contests.

In addition to the completion of a book, The Places of English Literature, Stratford, 1924, Mrs. Wesenberg wrote professional articles which appeared in the English Journal. Her original poetry and six translations with Dr. Thor Wesenberg from the Spanish, Provençal, and Norwegian languages were published in various magazines of note. She passed away in Indianapolis on June 9, 1967.