‘Keep moving and keep your mind active’: Inspiring Middletown woman turns 100 today

Since she never married or had children, Mary Maurer dedicated much of her adult life to her professional career and volunteerism.

She was engaged once, but her fiancé, James Gatewood III, was killed in 1945 during World War II as a member of the U.S. Air Force. He left behind a heartbroken 24-year-old back in Middletown.

“After that I wasn’t interested,” Maurer said of getting married. “All the good ones were gone.”

Maurer is celebrating her 100th birthday today with an open house at Ohio Living Mount Pleasant in Monroe, where she has lived for 25 years. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, guests must maintain social distancing and they will be given dessert to take home, she said.

She has received one birthday present, a sweatshirt with the words: “Vintage 1921. Limited Edition.”

When asked about turning 100, Maurer deadpanned: “Just one more than 99.”

The key to a long and healthy life, she said, is “to keep moving and keep your mind active.”

She was born March 13, 1921 to parents William and Carrie Maurer at Middletown Hospital just four years after it opened. Her two brothers and one sister are deceased.

She graduated from Middletown High School in 1939 and has kept a record of her classmates. Most, if not all, are dead, she said.

Mauer served as executive director of the Middletown Area Girl Scout Council and assistant executive director of the Great Rivers Girl Scout Council until she retired in 1986.

She may be best known for her volunteering efforts. She served on numerous boards and committees and was board chair at Mount Pleasant 19 years ago when Stan Kappers was hired as executive director.

“What an amazing lady with a servant heart,” Kappers said. “She’s always trying to find ways to help others. I’m a better person today because I’ve had her in my life and the example she set.”

Kappers remembers volunteering on a committee with Maurer and they divided a list of people to call. The next morning, she called Kappers to see if he had completed his task. She was already done.

“She makes the rest of us feel inferior,” he said.

Mike Sanders, former executive director of the Middletown Area United Way, said having volunteers with Maurer’s enthusiasm “made my job easier.”

“She just has volunteering in her DNA,” said Sanders, 76, who lives near Columbus. “When you look for a volunteer, you look for someone like her.”

Then in 1997, concerned not enough young people were volunteering, she established the Mary Maurer Volunteer of the Year Award through the Middletown Community Foundation that honors volunteers between the ages of 30 and 50. The winner receives $500 that is donated to a charity of their choice.

T. Duane Gordon, former executive director of the MCF, met Maurer at First United Methodist Church where she is the lay leader representative for the congregation and worked with her at the foundation.

When Gordon’s son, Tommy, was about to be born eight years ago, Maurer gave Gordon and his husband, Matthew Dixon, the baby blanket she was taken home from the hospital 92 years earlier.

“It was such a personal and beautiful gift,” Gordon said.