Maxine Platzer Lynn, who graduated from what was then the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and made an endowment donation to the University’s Women’s Center, died Nov. 23. She was 96.
In 1947, Platzer Lynn was a 19-year-old newlywed who had moved to Charlottesville and wanted to complete her education at UVA. She met some, but not all, of the conditions set in 1920 when UVA leadership first approved “the proposal to admit white women to the Graduate and Professional Schools of the University.” To begin studying at UVA at her age and with the coursework she had completed, she needed to petition the Board of Visitors for a waiver and appear in person to make her request.
She successfully petitioned the board and became a second-year student in what is now called the School of Education and Human Development, taking electives in departments across the College of Arts & Sciences.
“As a female student who would receive a B.S. in Education, I was an anomaly,” Platzer Lynn told the Women’s Center which bears her name in 2014.
In 2014, she made a $3 million endowment donation to the Women’s Center, allowing the center to grow and meet the needs of students across Grounds, regardless of gender.
Platzer Lynn is survived by her daughters Elise Friedman Shapiro, Amy Lynn Quinn and Julie Lynn, her stepson Michael Lynn, and her grandchildren Brian Shapiro, Shelby Quinn, Zoe Lynn Smith and Jack Smith. An expanded obituary can be found on the Women’s Center website.
