Katherine Selz Mayer joined Girls’ Latin School in eighth grade. “I remember all of my teachers’ names and what they looked like,” reflects Mrs. Mayer. “Miss Mabel Slade Vickery was Headmistress, Miss Bates taught Latin, Miss Hood English, Miss Jarrett mathematics, and Miss Porter physical education,” says Mrs. Mayer, who was an avid athlete, playing field hockey and basketball at Latin and was an accomplished golfer. “The education provided by the fine faculty carried over into my college years. Miss Hood was as thorough and accomplished as any English professor that I subsequently had at Vassar College.”

Mrs. Mayer’s relationship with The Latin School extends far past her graduation in 1927. She is the mother of Frank (Denny) Dewey Mayer, Jr. ’51, Barbara Mayer Marks ’54, and Susan Mayer Wood ’58; grandmother of Katherine Wood Baldwin ’83 and Elizabeth Wood-Hull ’85; and great-grandmother of current Lower School students Robert, Henry, and Isaiah (Ike) Baldwin.

Throughout her lifetime, Katherine Selz Mayer has been an avid supporter of The Latin School. She served as a member of its Board of Trustees from 1956-1961 and as honorary chair of the 1995 Campaign for Latin. Mrs. Mayer continues to attend Latin School events.

The Selz family has had a long-standing commitment to scholarship and education. In 1903, Mrs. Mayer’s grandfather, Morris Selz, created the one of the first scholarships at the University of Chicago which continues to be awarded to the woman with the best grade point average at the end of her freshman year. While in high school, Mrs. Mayer was active in the Friendly Relations Club, which gave financial aid to foreign students who were studying in Chicago. In 1991, Mrs. Mayer and her sisters, Margaret (Maggie) Block (d) ’30, Eleanor (Ellie) Shoenberg (d) ’34, and Barbara Lebus ’36, created the Mr. and Mrs. Abraham K. Selz Endowed Scholarship Fund in memory of their parents.

Last spring, Mrs. Mayer established a gift annuity at Latin and hopes that others will follow her example. Gift annuities provide a steady source of life-income as well as significant tax benefits. In a recent conversation, Mrs. Mayer described gift annuities as “an excellent vehicle for giving painlessly.”

For more information on gift annuities, please contact Anne Hobbs at 312-582-6047.

We are indeed grateful to Mrs. Mayer and to her family for their enduring commitment to The Latin School of Chicago.