| Honored by: | Barbara Stam, Gary Blumenschein, and Susan Marsh |
| Brick location: | G:26 map |
Margaret Elaine Larsen Blumenschein lives with standards as high as those that Carrie Chapman Catt set for herself. And both have had an abiding interest in the welfare of others.
Margaret was born in January 1913 in Montana, where her parents, both from Norway, were associated with the U.S. Forest Service. Her early years were spent in Idaho at a Forest Service Experiment Station. When her father accepted a teaching position in the Forestry Department at Iowa State College, the family moved to Ames. She attended Ames schools from fifth grade through college, graduating in 1935 with a B.S. is History from Iowa State. Old Botany Hall has special memories for her because her father's office was located there for many years.
In 1936, she married Robert Blumenschein, her friend since grade school and Iowa State classmate. He had romantically submitted the names Lancelot and Elaine in the campus competition to name the new swans on Lake LaVerne, subtly using her middle name. Margaret and Bob settled in Omaha and raised three children who also are ISU alumni.
Margaret has been a capable and creative homemaker, loving wife and Mother, and generous volunteer in schools, church, and community. She always seeks what is good, kind, and joyous, and makes those around her feel special. She has enjoyed the blessings and challenges of the passing years with verve, and enriched the countless lives she has touched. She's wonderful!
Her children, Barbara Stam, Gary Blumenschein, and Susan Marsh, and their families honor her and celebrate her life.
5/95