Tove Gertrud (Müller) Gerson, 1903-
Variant namesBiographical notes:
Tove Gertrud (Müller) Gerson, émigré social activist, YWCA administrator, gymnastics teacher, and physical therapist, was born on September 18, 1902, in Munich, Germany, the daughter of Ellen (Dyhr) and Albert Müller. She attended a private elementary school in the village of Dachau, and went on to the Humanistisches und Realgymnasium in Munich, graduating in 1919. After spending a year in Denmark with her mother(s family, TGG took courses at a business school, worked as a bank clerk and secretary, and in 1924 married Gerhard Gerson, a research engineer working in Essen.
Following a four-year course at the Bundesschule für Körperbildung und rhythmische Erziehung (Essen), TGG worked as a teacher and physical education instructor. In 1938 GG, who was half Jewish, left for the United States and went to work for Phillips Petroleum Co.; TGG joined him in 1939. Until she returned to Germany in 1973, TGG lived in four states and led an active professional and volunteer life reflected in the following chronology:
- Pontiac, Michigan
- 1939-1940: Cleaning woman
- 1941-1942: Gym teacher, Employee, "slenderizing studio"
- 1941-1942: Employee, "slenderizing studio"
- Bartlesville, Oklahoma
- 1942-1945: Leads exercise classes for women, YMCA
- 1942-1945: Gives speeches about conditions in Nazi Germany
- 1942-1945: Becomes aware of the issue of race relations
- 1943: Opens her own studio for gymnastics and physical therapy
- Rhode Island
- 1945: Organizes food and clothing packages for Holland
- 1946: Occupational therapist, State Hospital for Mental Diseases
- 1946-1947: Staff, Woonsocket YWCA
- 1947-1950: Gymnastics instructor, Providence YWCA
- 1948-1950: Active in Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Urban League
- 1950: GG dies while they are on a trip to Europe
- 1950-1953: TGG remains in Europe
- 1953-1955: Ward clerk, Sinai Hospital, Detroit
- 1953-1955: Joins NAACP
- 1955-1956: Lives in Sweden with mother-in-law
- 1956-1957: Director, Adult Activities Program, Dearborn, Mich. YWCA
- Cambridge, Mass.
- 1957-1968: Adult Program Director, YWCA: organizes interracial Trippers (travel group) and People(s Theatre, civil rights series
- 1957-1958: Takes courses at Tufts University
- 1958-1962: Takes courses at Boston University
- 1968-1969: Travels in Europe
- 1969-1970: Works at Radcliffe College and Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology
In 1970 TGG began to lose her sight. She returned to Germany in 1973. She is now blind and living in an Altersheim (old age home) in Essen.
From the guide to the Papers, 1919-1993, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)
Tove Gertrud (Mueller) Gerson was born in Munich, Germany, and married Gerhard Gerson, a research engineer, in 1924. She worked as a teacher and physical education instructor until 1939, when she joined her husband, who was half Jewish and working for Phillips Petroleum, in the United States. For the next three decades, while they lived in Michigan, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Cambridge, Mass., she was a teacher, physical therapist, YWCA administrator, and activist for peace and civil rights. In 1970 Gerson began to lose her sight; she returned to Germany in 1973.
From the description of Papers, 1919-1993 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 122373011
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Subjects:
- Abortion
- Abortion
- Amateur theater
- Blind women
- Civil rights
- Clubs
- German Americans
- Immigrants
- Jews
- Migrant agricultural laborers
- Physical education and training
- Physical fitness for women
- Physical therapists
- Refugees
- Voyages and travels
- War victims
- World War, 1939-1945
- Young Women's Christian associations
- Abortion
Occupations:
- Teachers
- Gymnastics Coach
- Occupational therapists
Places:
- Bartlesville (Okla.) (as recorded)
- United States (as recorded)
- Netherlands (as recorded)
- Massachusetts--Cambridge (as recorded)
- United States-Race relations (as recorded)
- Netherlands (as recorded)
- Bartlesville (Okla.) (as recorded)
- MI, US
- 07, DE
- MA, US
- 02, DE
- 13, SY
- OK, US
