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Laura Coats' relationship with Mayfield Senior School is multi-faceted and extends back more than thirty years. She was a faculty member. Her daughters attended Mayfield. Her late husband, Roy, was a member of the Board of Trustees from 1976-1982; Laura also served on the Board from 1992-1998. And, since 1990, the Coats family has generously provided scholarship funds for deserving students.
Laura joined the faculty in 1972, teaching typing and English and coaching gymnastics. Her daughters, Virginia Coats Ashworth '74 and Nancy Coats Routh '78, were students at Mayfield during Laura's tenure on the faculty, which ended in 1978. She continued to coach gymnastics until 1980.
Raised in Michigan, Laura came to Southern California "just for the adventure," after having graduated from Texas Christian University. In 1969 she married Roy Coats, a self-made success story, founder of Sunbank Electronics, Inc., which provided customized connector accessories to the aerospace industry. Roy and Laura were together for nineteen years, until he succumbed to cancer in 1988.
In Roy's memory, Laura created the Roy E. Coats Research Laboratories at the John Wayne Cancer Institute, and established a cancer research lab in Roy's name at UCLA.
Later, she married Thom Schulz, a former Flying Tigers pilot. Laura and Thom generously support many programs across Southern California, including the Coats Family Scholarship at Mayfield, a full tuition scholarship that can be given to an individual or shared by groups of students. Laura and Thom were also leadership donors in the Pike Auditorium campaign, sponsoring the Green Room in Roy's memory.
Most recently, in 2006, Laura and Thom provided a lead gift for the purchase of property adjacent to the school, which will allow Mayfield to realize a new campus Master Plan.
We thank Laura and Thom for their strong commitment to our Holy Child tradition and their belief in our future dreams.
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