University Times

Elizabeth Saffer, who worked at Pitt with cancer researcher Bernard Fisher from 1954 until 1992 and was a major contributor here in clinical studies and research on breast cancer, died March 11, 1998, of a stroke.

She was 82 and a lifelong Pittsburgher. Saffer won academic distinction at Peabody High School and majored in chemistry at the Pennsylvania College for Women, now Chatham College. She worked at several hospitals before meeting Fisher in 1954 and beginning a 38-year career as a medical researcher for the Fisher-led National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project.

Saffer also was a world traveler, a photographer and a founding member of the American Youth Hostel in Pittsburgh.