Edythe kirchmaier biography books

Published in SSA Magazine

107 Years of Service

Edythe Kirchmaier, January 22, 1908-October 24, 2015

Edythe Kirchmaier, the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration's oldest known former student, turned 107 on January 22, 2015. A 40-year volunteer for Direct Relief in Santa Barbara, CA, Mrs. Kirchmaier spent her Tuesdays writing thank you letters to donors. She drove herself to work and was fondly known as Edythe among the agency's many volunteers and staff members.

Direct Relief is a leading humanitarian medical relief organization, active in 70 countries and all 50 U.S. states. To honor the active centenarian and celebrate her 105th birthday two years ago, Direct Relief hosted a Facebook application called Edythe's 105th Birthday Challenge that allowed people to wish her a happy birthday by lighting a candle on the world's largest virtual birthday cake and becoming a fan of her beloved charity. The goal of Edythe's 105th Birthday Challenge was to generate 105,000 birthday wishes, which will equate to 105,000 Facebook fans for Direct Relief and make her birthday wish come true. Direct Relief now has more than 130,000 fans.

While a longtime supporter of Direct Relief, her story of working for social justice goes back to the early years of the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.

Edythe King graduated from the Ohio State University in 1930 and spent spring quarters from 1931 to 1934 taking courses and doing field work at a time when some of the legendary figures of the SSA faculty were teaching. She took a class with Edith Abbott, the first Dean of SSA, for instance, and remembers her as being "very strict."

Working with children was one of her interests when she was training to be a social worker and she pursued that work in field assignments. She lived at the Howell Neighborhood House (now Casa Aztlan) on Racine in Pilsen, the current Mexican community that was then a

At 105 years old, Edythe Kirchmaier is still as smart and engaging as she was at 65.

She is the oldest user on Facebook and for her birthday she asked for 105,000 “Likes” on the page of her favorite charity. Her Facebook friends already number 36,000 and they made her wish come true, tallying more than 124,000 “Likes” for the medical nonprofit Direct Relief.

“It’s overwhelming,” said the tech-savvy great-grandmother. “I never thought I’d make that much of an impression on people.”

She is also still driving a car — a new Honda gifted to her by an anonymous stranger after appearing on the ELLEN show. In all her decades of driving, she said, she has never gotten a ticket or citation.

(WATCH the video from TODAY or READ the story on MSNBC)