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Dorothy Belle Wood Petersen Mayer ’35

Dorothy Belle Wood Petersen Mayer ’35, January 12, 2008, in Portland. Dorothy attended Reed for two years, before leaving for family economic issues. For a year, in Boise, Idaho, she provided her father with secretarial assistance, and then entered Mt. Sinai School of Nursing in New York City. Dorothy determined that nursing was not her calling, and sold books at Macy's. She married LaPhene Petersen in 1935, in Idaho; they built a home, scraped through the war years, and began a family (daughter and son). In 1945, they moved to Illinois for a business opportunity. Mayer became a member of the League of Women Voters, was elected to the local school board, and when her husband was too ill to work, she took positions at Roycemore School for Girls in Evanston, the Avon cosmetics factory, and a gift shop at Marshall Field. In 1960, she returned to Portland, and from 1968 to 1975, she worked in registration and records at Portland State College (University). LaPhene died in 1969. In 1975, she married widower Phillip Mayer ’33. The couple built a house in Cannon Beach, which they enjoyed immensely. Phillip died in 1999.

Appeared in Reed magazine: May 2008