Audio letters from Tove Gerson to Elena Dodd, 1985-1995

Civil rights and peace activist Tove Gertrud (Müller) Gerson, was born on September 18, 1903, 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 secondary school in Munich, graduating in 1919. After spending a year in Denmark with her mother's family, Tove Gerson 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, Germany. Following a four-year course at the Bundesschule für Körperbildung und rhythmische Erziehung (Federal school for physical education and rhythmic education) in Essen, Tove Gerson worked as a teacher and physical education instructor. In 1938 Gerhard Gerson, who was half Jewish, left for the United States and went to work for Phillips Petroleum Company; Tove Gerson joined him in 1939. Until she returned to Germany in 1973, Tove Gerson lived in four states (Michigan, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts) and led an active life as a teacher, physical therapist, Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) administrator, and activist for peace and civil rights. From 1957 to 1968 she was the Adult Program Director at the YWCA in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she organized travel groups and co-founded the People's Theatre (1964). In 1970 Gerson began to lose her sight. She returned to Germany in 1973 and lived in Essen until her death in 1998.

Elena Harap Dodd grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. She studied acting and holds an M.A. in American literature from Boston University, and an M.F.A. in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Dodd's interest in multi-cultural theater and the life of cities led to her co-founding Streetfeet children's workshops in Roxbury, Massachusetts, with Angela Cook (1975). She is also co-founded Streetfeet Women, a Boston-based multi-cultural ensemble of writers and performers, with Mary McCullough (1982). From 1991 to 2014 she performed in a national tour of "Meet Eleanor Roosevelt," a one-woman show written and produced with Josephine Lane. Dodd is also a contributor to the anthology, What Does it Mean to be White in America? (2016). Dodd now lives in Putney, Vermont.