161.894.5

This photograph of Gladys Hultz Mead was taken around 1955 after the publication of her book, "At the Squaw and the Skunk," a history of her hometown of Ames, Iowa. Gladys Hultz was born in Ames on June 18, 1895. She graduated from Ames High School and Iowa State College; taught chemistry at Iowa State for ten years; and was very active in civic affairs. Meads orginated the Newtimers Club and the Golden Age movement. She served as the first president of the Golden Age board of directors. Mrs. Meads was a commentator on radio station KASI and wrote the "Aunt Sary" column in the "Ames Daily Tribune" under the pen name Anne Walters. She also served on the first board of directors of the Northcrest Retirement Community when the first building was in the planning stage in the latter half of the 1960s. The material for her book of local history was first published serially in the "Ames Daily Tribune" in 1954 and came out in book form in December of 1955. A reprint with some additonal material and an index was published in 1976. Ted Kooser, Jr., who would serve as U.S. poet laureate in the first decade of the 21st century, provided the cover art for the book (he was a high school student at the time). Gladys Meads died in May, 1985, having almost reached her 90th birtday. [See also: 161.895.1-5]