Claire M. Olds
Claire M. Olds, a pioneering administrator whose leadership helped shape a generation of Skidmore students during a period of extraordinary change, died on May 25, 2025. She was 97.
Claire joined Skidmore in 1964 as dean of student affairs, a position she held through 1977. Revered by students, Claire served during a defining period in the College’s history — as Skidmore transitioned from an all-women’s college to a coeducational institution and relocated from its downtown campus to its current campus.
Writing following a 1968-69 academic year characterized by national protests surrounding the Vietnam War and civil rights, then President Joseph Palamountain Jr. praised Claire’s “essential and creative” leadership: “It is not merely that we have survived relatively peacefully at a time when many, if not most, campuses have undergone far more painful experiences — it is also, I think, that we have built well and that our students have learned much in their extra-close experiences.”
Mary Lou Bates, Skidmore’s retired vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid, described Claire’s important role in fostering community among Skidmore students who for a time were split between two locations.
“Claire oversaw significant transitions in Skidmore’s history at a time when maintaining community was sometimes challenging,” Mary Lou said. “She was warm, friendly, charismatic, and outgoing.”
Writing to Claire in 1976, President Palamountain similarly described her as a community-builder: “While the creation of that sense and reality of community is the work of many, many hands, probably no pair of hands is more central than your own.”
Claire chronicled her tenure as dean in her 2008 memoir, “Skidmore When I Was Dean Olds.”
“I was simply in love with Skidmore — its founders, mission, administrators, goals, students, faculty, and staff. We worked together through all the hardship and joys as family ... my family,” Claire wrote.
In 1978, she became the College’s first director of personnel and also served as affirmative action officer and director of equal employment opportunity until her retirement in 1983. In recognition of her service, Skidmore established the Claire M. Olds Scholarship, which continues to support students.
Born on April 1, 1928, in Manchester, Connecticut, she was part of an American Girl Scout troop to travel to postwar Europe in 1948 — an experience she wrote about in her 2011 book, “Just Emily.”
She completed her undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Connecticut in 1951, earned a master’s degree in higher education administration from Syracuse University in 1955, and received a doctorate in education from the University of Denver in 1967.
Claire is survived by her nieces, Susan Olds of New York City and Kathryn Olds of Ponte Vedra, Florida.