Melamerson Athletic Field

Melamerson Athletic Field. About Dorothy Melamerson.... , Dorothy Melamerson lived most of her life in Lincoln Park. A Fitness enthusiast, she was a gym teacher at Stone Elementary School and other public schools for 36 years. When she retired in 1977, she began an education of her own: how to make her savings grow. The effort was not for herself, however. Her happiness came from simpler pleasures, such as being outside to bicycle or walk the park. The real beneficiary was to be the physical well-being of children, a cause to which she had devoted her life. Her modest lifestyle and wise investing led to a most generous gift when she died in 1994 at age 74, $900,000 to be used to upgrade facilities and begin youth sports programs in Chicago Park District properties in the 43rd Ward where she had lived. Close to $600,000 of the estate went into the 1996-[9]7 renovation of Oz Park athletic field and playlot. Thanks to Dorothy Melamerson's generous spirit, her enthusiasm for youth fitness lives on in this park, where hundreds of youth are reaping the benefits of the real Wizard of Oz.