It may be easy to miss Georglyn Seligman, but she is a human dynamo who walks the streets of Rossmoor.
Georglyn stands 4 feet and 7 inches, yet her presence in the community is towering because of decades of public service she has provided in local organizations, including the Rossmoor Homeowners Association and the Boy Scouts of America. She has served on the RHA board for 40 years. Along with Del Clark and Shirley Bailey, two other stalwart civic volunteers, she launched the annual Rossmoor Festival decades ago. She joined the Rossmoor Woman’s Club once her sons graduated elementary school and has been an active member ever since.
The Rossmoor Community Services District recognized her service during the Rossmoor Arbor Day celebration by planting a tree in her honor at Rush Park. Local Boy Scout
Troop 658 also gave her a recent award for her decades-long participation.
In July, she became the first Emeritus Member of the RHA in honor her decades of service to Rossmoor and the surrounding communities.
Georglyn was born in Harvey, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, in 1935. She was named after her mother’s set of Georglyn China. She married her husband, Ray, in 1960 after a six-year romance.
They left for California the night they were married. “My mother was upset,” she recalls, not thrilled about losing her daughter to far away California. They lived for a bit in Eagle Rock at a couple different homes and then Glendale.
In 1971, they were looking to relocate and passed the Rossmoor Gate on Los Alamitos Blvd. “I said it looks expensive. We shouldn’t bother looking in there,” she recalls. But against her instincts, they looked around and bought a privately listed home for $32,000.
“Rossmoor has been very good to me,” she said with her ever present smile.
Ray attended Princeton but didn’t graduate. In California, he became a self-taught design engineer and specialized in conveyer systems for industry. They had two sons, one who works in printing and another who works in the motor sport industry. Ray passed away about a dozen years ago.
One of Georglyn’s dreams was to get Mario Andretti’s autograph. She waited in line at a race and asked him, “What do you have to do to get a ride by you around the track?” He gave her his phone number and said it would cost $500, which would go to charity.
In 2015, they connected at the Long Beach Grand Prix where Georglyn put on a fireproof racing suit and jumped into the race car.
“He told me I went 140 miles per hour,” she said. “I was never so thrilled.”
A couple weeks later, Mario sent her check back and said she could donate it to a charity.
Georglyn may have the lowest carbon footprint in Rossmoor. She doesn’t have a car and does all her grocery shopping and other errands on foot or by bus. She walks to Ralph’s, towing her grocery cart.
If you see her, you’ll likely see some of the face paint she often wears. At 87, she has more energy and verve than people half her age.
Watch her ride with Mario below.
Special thanks to John Underwood, the award-winning community television producer, for sharing his interview with Georglyn with us. The full interview can be seen here on the Los Al TV 3 website.
