Lauramae B. Stuhl

In reading about my Heroine, Lauramae B. Stuhl, my mom, hopefully you can picture your mom and remember great memories about her and this brings smiles to your face. She was like so many moms of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s who stayed home even though she could hold down a job and take care of her family. She made the meals for the table, kept the house clean, and supported her family’s different activities among other things. She always knew what to say to cheer you on, whether in victory or defeat.

She was born in Portland and went to Gregory Heights Grade School and Grant High School. After being accepted by Reed College and Oregon State she decide to go to OSU during the war years. She wanted to major in chemistry but as a women, that was not possible there and she was encouraged instead to major in math and minor in English. She also picked up a teaching certificate in these areas. After college she worked first in Albany as a teacher and then moved to Gresham High.

In December of 1947 she married Jack Stuhl and in October of 1953 she had a son and had quit teaching the previous June because of having a child. From that point on she became both a wife and mom and no longer a working career woman. She was what many at the time called a housewife even though she did much more than that. When I entered Glenhaven Grade School she immediately became involved in the PTA and for the next eight years she was the Treasurer of this group because of her math abilities. She nightly would help me with my class work so that I would get the most out of my education and obtain good grades. Every week she took me to the nearby Hollywood Library to encourage me to love books as much as she did and I was to get three books and she would make me not only read the books but write a report on each book. This gave me a love for reading all types of materials that still goes on and today and I have a large personal library that people can’t believe that I have read all the books in. She also gave me a love for math and even though I wanted to be a lawyer I have ended up teaching math for over thirty years and still love teaching it.

She had lived through the Depression though not in a family of poverty but still understood the effects it had caused to many others around her. With a strong belief in equality, my mom always told me to look at others for who they were on the inside and to never stop knowing someone just because of their ethnic background or any other reasons. She believed strongly that women could and should be able to do anything that men could do within logic. When a woman broke through in a certain area, she quickly informed all of us of that achievement. What this gave me was the ability to teach all children with an equality and love that others often make comments about and being able to achieve certain milestones in my life because of the support of all types of people.

When my dad achieved a dream of his of becoming Prime Minister of the Portland Royal Rosarians in 1969, Mom quickly stepped in to support him. In the years following, she supported his work of volunteering to haul a Portland Rose Festival traveling float around the Pacific Northwest. She made the cloth medallions used in the Junior Rose Festival Knighting Ceremony in which she had been involved in way back in the 1930s as a Crown Bearer. When Dad became Executive Secretary of the Rosarians, she again helped him out and spent long hours doing a lot of the work while Dad got the front line credit. In 1992 when I became Prime Minister, she was proud of and supported my attempts to make changes in the Rosarians like stopping smoking at social activities. 

By reading about my heroine, my mom, hopefully not only have you learned about her but have been reminded of the beautiful thoughts and memories of your mom. I have attempted to give a quick overview of someone who molded me into the person I’m proud of being and taught me good feeling that one gets in their own heart.

Written by Scott C. Stuhl, her son