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Wednesday, 2 December 1998
`Mía' Ott dies at 84; pioneered Spanish education
in Tucson
By L. Anne Newell
The Arizona Daily Star
Mary Guadalupe ``Mía'' Ott, who pioneered Spanish language education
for more than 50 years at various Tucson schools and in the community,
died Saturday. She was 84. Ott was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, on
May 12, 1914. Her family had moved to Tucson in 1867, and her grandfather,
Hylor, was a Pima County sheriff. She moved with her family to Nogales,
Ariz., as the Mexican Revolution began and back to Tucson in 1927.
She lived in Tucson the rest of her life.
After graduating from the University of Arizona in 1935, Ott taught
for 42 years, at Borton Elementary School, Roskruge Junior High School
and Tucson, Catalina and Sahuaro high schools. She retired in 1977
as head of Sahuaro's modern languages department. ``What kind of teacher
was she? In a word, good,'' said former Tucson Police Chief Peter
Ronstadt, who sat in Ott's Catalina classroom from 1957 to '59. ``There's
going to be a lot more people than me that are probably a little weepy
right now,'' he said. Ronstadt said he was just one of many people
inspired by Ott. Friends and family joked that she probably taught
50 percent of Tucson Spanish classes, said Chuck Ott, her nephew.
``As one of six nieces and nephews who've grown up and lived in Tucson,
we have, all our lives, been met with questions about our aunt,''
he said. ``Any place we go in town, there seems to always be someone
who remembers her fondly and wants to know how she was and what she
was doing.''
Mary Ott was a local pioneer in language education, basing her classes
on the belief that for students to learn a language, they must be
immersed in the culture of the language. ``She loved the Spanish language
and culture, and she dearly loved the Mexican people. She not only
taught language, but did her best to get students excited about culture,''
Chuck Ott said. He said he remembers a field trip he took with one
of her classes to a bullfight in Nogales, Sonora. Ronstadt said he
remembers going to his grandmother's house to make albondigas when
his class was assigned to make traditional Mexican foods. Even after
retirement, Mary Ott continued teaching Spanish to Tucson, telling
friends she thought of the whole city as her classroom, Chuck Ott
said. Mary Ott volunteered as an interpreter for University Medical
Center, taught classes at Tucson Botanical Gardens and at her retirement
home, Campana del Rio. She also never stopped teaching herself, her
nephew said. She spent a year in Colombia as a Fulbright scholar and
collected graduate credits in Spanish language and culture classes,
later turning her attention to Japanese language and culture classes,
Chuck Ott said. Mary Ott also spent a year in Japan in a language
teacher exchange program and studied for a year in Spain, on a sabbatical.
Although Ott dedicated her free time to her love of gardening and
volunteering - for the Catholic Daughters, the Botanical Gardens and
Libraries Unlimited - teaching was her first, true love, her nephew
said. ``At her retirement at Sahuaro, she said she never wanted to
be anything but a teacher,'' he said.
In addition to her nephew, Mary Ott is survived by brothers Charles
H. Ott III and Frank E. Ott; nieces Mary Ellen Hardin, Tricia Ginter
and Lisa Avramis; nephew Frank R. Ott; and numerous other relatives
in Mexico and Tucson. A Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. tomorrow
at St. Cyril Church, 4725 E. Pima St., on the corner of Pima and Swan.
The family asks that in memory of Ott, contributions be made to the
Tucson Botanical Gardens, the University of Arizona Hispanic Alumni
Association or the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
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