Requiescat in pace Miriam Gerlach Miriam “Mimi” Gerlach passed away on June 28, 2020 in Ocala, Florida. She was affectionately known by the CLS community as Frau or Frau Gerlach, teaching German, Social Studies, Speech, and managing the library from 1989 to 2006. She is survived by Garry, her husband of 43 years, and daughters Kristi ’96 and Karin ’98. I sat down with Kristi and Karin to talk about Frau and her time at Covington Latin School as part of an ongoing series of articles by the CLS Alumni Association about former faculty and administration.
Explaining Frau’s involvement in all things CLS, Karin shared that “Mom was so proud of her students, whatever their accomplishments, whatever they won or whatever they tried. She was grateful to be involved because she knew each kid would be spectacular, and she was grateful to be part of their story. The kids were her 3rd, and 4th, and 5th child.”
Karin said it best, Frau “loved everything at Latin School. She lived and breathed the school. Even after retirement, she would have dropped everything to help out.” Kristi shared that Latin School was a community in which Frau found a home. Frau could always be found in the library; it was a place she cherished and made special for the students. If you were looking for your friend, you would check the locker room, the classroom and, of course, the library. The library was where students met during lunch, study hall or tutorial, to work on a paper, during, before and after school - it was a home, a community, curated by Frau to be a space that was welcoming to the students.
Kristi and Karin thought you may have noticed as one of her students that she had a strange seating chart, terrible handwriting, and a fashion sense that never changed. Some of the many qualities we remember about Frau, and part of what made German such an enjoyable class.
As the CLS German teacher, Frau coordinated and coached a generation of CLS students in competitions at the Foreign Languages Festival – where high schools throughout the state of Kentucky still compete for various academic and non-academic categories. Her students regularly swept the field, both in regional and state competitions. One of her favored categories was the German Choir competition which combined her passions for music and German.
Frau rarely seated her students by last name – or rather by the first letter of your last name. There was a system, just never one that was clear – sometimes seating would be ordered by the 3rd letter of your last name, or the 4th letter of your first name converted to a number and subtracted by the 2nd letter of your last name converted to a number. She was clever and creative.
Frau was a ready volunteer, willing to coach or sponsor any team or organization. She coached a variety of Academic Teams and Governor’s Cup Teams. She moderated the Cross Country and Track teams, even though Kristi shared “she never ran.” She organized outings for exchange students.
Kristi explained that when Frau was learning to write, she was left-handed, and the school tied her hand behind her back to make her write with her right hand. It never really took, and she had terrible penmanship with both hands. 8
