In 1895, Collitz (née Hechtenberg) gained first class honors in the Oxford final examination (B.A.)
[1] After two years at the University of Heidelberg she took her Ph.D. (magna cum laude) in 1901, with a dissertation entitled Das fremdwort bei Grimmelshausen; ein beitrag zur fremdwörterfrage des 17.
Although she never again held an academic position, she continued to conduct research and contribute to scholarly journals in the United States and abroad.
[4] On August 13, 1904, she married Hermann Collitz, who became the first President of the Linguistic Society of America.
Upon her death, in 1944, she left most of her estate to the Linguistic Society of America to found the Hermann and Klara H. Collitz Professorship in Comparative Philology.