Tove Gertrud (Müller) Gerson, 1903-

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:

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