"This may certify that Miss Mary Rippon has been for more than a year a pupil in the high school department of the Normal School. During all this time she has had the respect and esteem of her teachers for her excellent deportment, her ladylike learning, and her scholarly habits. She has had much more than average success in her studies. "

William 1. Pillsbury, Normal High School principal, Normal IL,1868.(Mary Rippon attended universities in Germany, France, and Switzerland, BUT SHE NEVER RECEIVED EVEN A BACHELORS DEGREE.)

"Miss Rippon has filled the chair of German and French Language and Literature nine years in this institution. She has proved herself to be thoroughly efficient as a teacher. Not only possessing an extended knowledge of the languages taught, but a remarkable power of imparting, and at the same time rousing an interest -- an enthusiasm -- in the student. The results of her labor here are more than satisfactory. The Board of Regents -- the whole faculty -- as well as patrons and students unite in testimony to her ability, devotion, and above all, to her exalted womanhood. Should she sever her connection here it would be of her own choice. "

Joseph Sewall (first president of CU) upon his resignation, May 3, 1887.Mary Rippon taught at CU from January 1878 to June 1909. In the spring of 1881 she was promoted to Professor and Chair of the Department of Modem Languages. In 1891 she was named Chair of the Department of German Language and Literature.