After attending art classes at the College of Lake County for 23 years, Margaret Salem is the school’s longest continuing student–and all that time accounts for less than a quarter of her life.
Salem, an artist and former owner of a Lake Zurich beauty salon, celebrates her 100th birthday Saturday, making her the college’s oldest student. The school threw her a party Friday.
At the college’s main Grayslake campus, in the first-floor painting studio of Robert Lossmann–Salem’s teacher for 13 years–several dozen other students honored Salem.
“Before I came here, I took a few painting classes at other colleges,” said Salem, whose watercolors were displayed in a continuous slideshow during the party. “But I didn’t fit in. Then I got a flier about art classes from the college, and I stayed.”
Since signing up for her first painting class at the college in 1978, Salem has made the 20-mile round trip from her Lake Zurich home every week to attend a four-hour painting studio class.
Because the course encourages students to work on their own paintings, Salem has been able to stretch her skills each semester, she said. She is enrolled in the school as a “lifelong learner” and is not working toward a degree.
“She’s always willing to try something new,” Lossmann said.
Even though her fading vision forced her to give up driving two years ago, Salem regularly attends school. A friend drives her now, and even though glaucoma and macular degeneration have diminished her sight, her watercolors continue to be shown at regional shows and have sold for several hundred dollars.
