Kurt Mayer was born Jan. 14, 1930, in Mainz, Germany, to Joe and Emmy Mayer. The family escaped to the United States during the Holocaust and settled in San Francisco. In 1957, Mayer moved to Tacoma, where he went into the home-construction business.

He was introduced to Pacific Lutheran University when he was invited to speak to Professor Christopher Browning’s Holocaust class. In his memoir, Mayer wrote, “The fact that a university founded by Norwegian Lutherans would teach the evils of Nazism and spare no one who was guilty from being exposed was for me the key.”

Mayer served on the PLU Board of Regents from 1995-2005. With encouragement from family members and friends, The Kurt Mayer Chair in Holocaust Studies was created to honor Mayer and to ensure that teaching of the Holocaust would remain an important part of the PLU curriculum.

Mayer published his memoir, My Personal Brush with History, in 2009; it was translated into German and published in October 2012. Mayer appeared at PLU’s Powell-Heller Conference for Holocaust Education in 2010 and 2011, was the featured author at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2011 and has held various other signings, with all proceeds supporting the PLU Holocaust Studies Program.

Mayer died a month after the German edition of his book was published. His wife, Pam; his children Natalie and Joe; and Joe’s wife, Gloria, remain in the Tacoma area and continue to actively support the Holocaust program at PLU.