Mater Gladiatrix

Book excerpt: In 1946, while Rosy the Riveter was taking her shop apron off and setting down her wrench for the last time, Millie Uher got into a U.S. Army surplus Jeep and drove up into the hills southwest of Maracaibo, Venezuela. In this biography written by her son, we learn she was much more than a working mother. She was a woman of the world and a rare trendsetter that changed the world without design and perhaps intent. The development and education expert would live 100 years and break ground and gender barriers as an athlete in basketball, tennis, golf, and especially alpine skiing as she trekked the globe. She dared to go where others, including men, dared not go, living her life at full speed and never once touching the brakes. From immigrant's child to global diplomat, from rural schoolchild to urbane single mother, and from first-generation high school graduate to Ph.D., this is the story of a traditional American girl who became a bona fide adventurer.