Abstract
In this interview, Sarah Gertrude Mazick describes working in Providence as a teenager and her desire to attend medical school against the wishes of her mother. She shares her memories of World War I, including learning to knit, Armistice Day celebrations, and the influenza epidemic of 1918. Mazick also discusses the lack of financial aid for female students, effects of the Great Depression, and her pre-med coursework at Brown University.
She remembers Lillian Gilbreth’s visit to Chapel, an exchange she had with Dr. J. Walter Wilson, and her affection for Dean Margaret Shove Morriss. The end of this interview focuses largely on women in medicine and Mazick’s own training and career.
See also: One of Our Oldest Living Alums Tells All, Brown Alumni Magazine
Part 1
Part 2
Recorded on April 12, 1982 in Sarah Mazick’s home, Providence, RI
Interviewed by Sandra Livingston
Suggested Chicago style citation: Mazick, Sarah Gertrude. Interview. By Sandra Livingston. Pembroke Center Oral History Project, Brown University. April 12, 1982.
Biography
Sarah Gertrude Mazick was born on January 20, 1908 to Rebecca Resnick and Max Mazick, both Russian immigrants. She was raised in Providence, Rhode Island and attended Classical High School. Her father died when she was 15, and Mazick entered Brown with a three-year scholarship, taking extra courses so that she could graduate. She earned her M.D. from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1932, and returned to Providence to practice as a psychiatrist. She married Dr. Elihu Saklad, with whom she had two sons, Mark and James, and a daughter, Brina. She died in 2009 at age 101.