The Plaza of Heroines in front of Catt Hall at Iowa State University contains over 3,000 bricks with the names of women who, as role models, made an impact on families, communities, and society as mothers, teachers, wives, scientists, friends and activists. One of those names is Margery Ann Maberry Gilmor. She is honored there by her two daughters Jane and Ann, not only because she is their mother but also because, after thirty years of university teaching for Jane and twenty-five years as a creative film executive for Ann, Margery is still their most important role model as an educator and a learner. Her lifelong interest and quest for knowledge in all areas have always been their inspiration. But perhaps even more important she has shown them that a sense of humor and an open mind are essential in life.

Margery Ann Maberry Gilmor was born October 26, 1922 in Amarillo, Texas, the first child of Buell George Maberry and Sally Belle Sparks Maberry. She was later joined by her brother James William Maberry, who frequently tested her patience with his mischievous practical jokes. Her mother Sally Belle also had a penchant for testing Margery. She once pretended to be unconscious on the kitchen floor when Margery came home from school –“just to see what she would do if there were an emergency”! Margery found only moderate humor in these antics. But, indeed, her immediate and extended family, including her cousin and best friend Mary Ellen, always seemed determined to find the humor in the best and worst of times.

Margery graduated from Amarillo High School at 16 and went on to attend Canyon College and then the University of Colorado in Boulder where she earned a BS in Medical Technology, graduating with honors in 1944. After her father’s sudden death she returned to Amarillo to work in the lab at the Amarillo Air Force Base during World War II. There she met Fred Howard Gilmor from Cedar Rapids, Iowa who also worked in the lab. In 1946 they married and moved to Ames, Iowa where Fred would complete his degree in General Mechanical Engineering under the GI Bill. In Ames Margery was employed by the Iowa State University Health Department where she frequently tested blood for those working on the famous Manhattan Project there. Their first daughter, Jane Ellen, was born in Ames in 1947. In 1950 the family moved to Waterloo, Iowa where their second daughter Ann Elizabeth was born in 1952. A third daughter Sally was born in 1954 and died four years later of a rare genetic disorder.

In the coming years, Margery began a three-decade career as a medical technologist at the American Red Cross Blood Center, where she met Elsa Waschek, who was to become her life long friend. Fred joined with friend Jim Doyle to open their own engineering firm, Gilmor and Doyle.

Margery devoted much time to the girls’ education, enjoying every homework assignment much more than they did. She took some art classes and expanded her creativity into the home with titles for lunches like “Woodchuck Surprise”. During these years there were many family trips, including visits to South Dakota to visit Margery’s brother James and his wife Gladys and family. From there it might be on to Yellow Stone or the Black Hills or to The New York World’s Fair. Margery loved to travel and she kept fascinating travel diaries. A subcategory of the journals was the ‘fiasco” section titled Fred and Marge’s Excellent Adventures. These include a trip to Mount Rushmore when the fog didn’t lift for three days.

After thirty years with the American Red Cross Margery retired in 1989. She continued to enjoy bird watching, sewing, reading and crossword puzzles. Indeed, while in ICU with pneumonia this past month, she was still able to do the word jumble in four minutes flat.

Margery Gilmor was a quiet, somewhat shy woman of incredible resilience and strength. Her dry wit was always a surprise to new comers. Just two days before she died, knowing she was not doing well, she commented with her characteristic roll of the eyes “I guess I better get crackin‘ on those Christmas gifts”. Her favorite country western song lyrics were “I see a light at the end of the tunnel; Lord, I hope it’s not a train”. In the end her daughters had to assure her it was now okay to go toward that light, and, just as they had to say goodbye to their father almost exactly a year ago, they now say goodbye to and celebrate the life of a beautiful woman, a beautiful mind, and a beautiful mother.