Geneva Meers

Geneva M. Meers, 83, of Mount Vernon, died Tuesday, April 6, 2004 in the University Hospitals and Clinic, Iowa City, from a lengthy illness. A memorial services will be held 1:30 p.m.,Sunday, April 18, 2004 in Allee Chapel on the Cornell College Campus, Mount Vernon. Geneva was born December 31, 1920 in Heyworth, Illinois, the daughter of Walter and Georgia Whitfield Meers. She received her bachelor's degree from Illinois State Normal University in 1942, her Master's at Northwestern University in 1945, and her Ph. D. from Northwestern in 1953. Between 1942 and 1950, she taught in high schools in Hoopeston, Illinois and Battle Creek, Michigan; at Marquette University, Milwaukee. In 1953, she became an instructor in the English Department of Cornell College where she retired as full professor in 1986. During her Cornell years, she served three terms as department chairman, two years as president of AAUP, three years as the first commissioner of the Midwest Athletic Conference for Women, nine years as Affirmative Action officer. Upon her retirement, she taught a course or two at Cornell each year, usually grammar, sometimes Freshman English. She taught three Chautauqua courses: Four Poets in '87; History of English Language in '89 and Robert Browning in '91. She became a charter member of the Cornell National Council of Advisors and served as Chair of the Annual Fund Council. She has been among major contributors to Cornell's fine Arts Fund and Cornell Fund. She served on the Cornell Board of Trustees from 1992-1997; then she was elected a life trustee in February 1998. Outside her efforts for the College, she tutored more than 140 sessions in the adult literacy program sponsored by Kirkwood and she conducted book studies in libraries for a program sponsored by the Iowa Humanities Foundation in several Iowa towns including Martelle, Cedar Rapids, Tipton, Coralville, Lisbon, Maquoqueta, Clarinda, Grinnell, Marion, Pochahontas, West Liberty and Clinton. For the centennial of Ruth Suckow in 1992, she read a paper in Earlville entitled "The role of Women in Suckow Land." She was a long-time active member of the League of Women Voters and Ingleside Book Club. Since her retirement, she published two articles in the Gazette: one on the charms of detective fiction and one on "genteel errors" in grammar. She was an avid bird watcher and gardener when she was not reading for herself and others. She recorded issues of the Cornell Report for blind and sight-impaired alumni. She traveled to New Zealand and Australia in 1986 and thereafter to her family in Illinois. Surviving Geneva are two sisters: Bonnie Brill of Bloomington, Illinois, June McKee of Springfield, Illinois, 5 nieces and nephews, 4 great nieces and nephews, and many cousins and friends. Memorial contributions should be sent to Cornell College, Office of College Advancement, Geneva Meers Endowed Scholarship Fund, 600 First Street West, Mount Vernon, IA 52314. On-line condolences to www.morganfuneralchoices.com. Sunday, April 18, 2004 in Allee Chapel on the Cornell College Campus, Mount Vernon.