Clara Mayo

Early life and education

Clara Alexandra Weiss was born in Linz, Austria, on September 13, 1931 as the only child to Joseph, a product of “mixed marriage” and Maria Weiss, a Catholic. Weiss early childhood was peaceful until Hitler took charge and her family had to leave their life of luxury in an attempt to avoid getting captured by the Nazis. The Weiss family managed to land in southern France undetected but then became refugees attempting to enter into the United States. Upon their arrival to the United States, Clara Weiss learned English by reading from the children’s books from the Children’s Room of the New York Public Library from A to Z. English became Weiss’ third language, the others being German and French.

After graduating from Hunter High School, Clara Weiss enrolled in Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she majored in philosophy and was introduced to psychology by Urie Bronfenbrenner. Some of the research that she conducted was focused on the capacity to detect small behavioral cues. After conducting this study she came to the conclusion that women are good readers of nonverbal cues. She graduated with honors bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1953. Earlier that year she married James P. Mayo, Jr. In 1955 she received a master's degree from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She was then accepted into the social psychology doctoral program at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Mayo received her Ph.D. from Clark in 1959. After leaving Clark, she worked as a social psychology trainee at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Brockton, Massachusetts.