Miss Mabel F. Sheplar began service in April of 1926, as more than just an average secretary. Her background involved extensive post-graduate study at University of Michigan, and teaching Latin, German, and French at a girls’ academy. She had previous experience as secretary to the Director of the U of M Clinic in Psychiatry, secretary to the director of the Merrill-Palmer School, and secretary to the State Architect of Michigan. Being that the WCTS was a new, totally uncharted venture when it opened, and there were no equivalent organizations from which an experienced staff could be harvested, those who were chosen to fill its positions were generally of exceptional qualifications, and Miss Sheplar exemplified this. It was her job to recruit and train the entire clerical staff of the institution, and to determine the adequacy and systematization of the clerical methods the WCTS would employ in addition to being Haskell’s secretary, “in those pressure days of the preparation for opening.” She was also called “the right hand of the Administrative Board.” Unfortunately, Miss Sheplar retired from WCTS in November of 1952 and was granted a “guest status” to review and arrange records of the WCTS's early days so that a history of the institution’s first 25 years could be written. She passed away after less than two years of retirement however, leaving one to wonder whether this did not also kill the historical project she was undertaking on the WCTS's early days. She lived in Ann Arbor, and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Ann Arbor.