Jessie Hamm Meyer Graduate Award

Jessie Hamm Meyer

Carol F. Meyer created this scholarship in honor of her mother, Jessie Hamm Meyer, who passed away in 2003 at the age of 91. Jessie Meyer was a strong advocate of UF’s PK Yonge Developmental Research School along with her husband, Harvey Meyer, who was one of the school’s first principals. She received her Master’s of Education from the University of Florida in 1951. She began her teaching career at age 19 in one and two room schools of Kentucky prior to receiving her bachelor’s degree from Berea College. In Alachua County she taught in both Waldo and Howard Bishop schools. She was president of the Alachua County Classroom Teachers’ Association. She retired from teaching in Palm Beach County, following which she had a real estate career in both Boca Raton and Keystone Heights. She was President of the Keystone Heights Women’s Club and State Historian and Archivist. As such she wrote Leading the Way, a 100 year history of the Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs. She was co-author, along with her husband, of the 2nd edition of Historical Dictionary of Honduras. She was honored as an outstanding alumna of Berea College and was known by friends and colleagues for her wit and wisdom.

Carol Meyer is a 1953 graduate of PK Yonge and attended the University of Florida where she was one of the first recipients of the J. Hillis Miller Scholarship. She then transferred to Duke University where she received her bachelor’s degree. She went on to earn her medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia and was boarded in both pediatrics and allergy/immunology. She worked at Gorgas Hospital in the former Canal Zone as pediatrician, allergist, immunologist and rheumatologist. Retiring from civil service in 1989, she returned to the faculty of MCG in allergy/immunology and pediatric rheumatology where she once again retired in 2001. She then returned to the Gainesville area for the first time since 195