Geraldine Slemmons

Geraldine Stinemates Slemmons December 2, 1912

July 3, 2008

Geraldine Slemmons was born Geraldine Marcella Stinemates near Grant, Iowa. She grew up on a farm there in a family of three daughters and attended the local high school where she excelled in sports and public speaking. She attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City and received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Communications and Theatre in 1933. While in college she met engineering student Charles Oliver Slemmons, also from rural Iowa near Iowa City, and they were married in 1936. They moved to Akron, Ohio that year where Charles worked as an engineer for Goodrich. In Akron they had two children: Rod Slemmons, 1941, now adjunct faculty and Director of the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago; and Gretchen Slemmons, 1944, now an Administrative Assistant in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, Mass. In 1946 they moved to South Bend, Indiana where Charles worked for Studebaker. In 1950 they moved back to Akron, where Charles worked for General Tire and Rubber Company for the rest of his career, and Geraldine worked in the Akron Public Library as a reference librarian and occasionally as a home tutor for the Akron Public Schools. After Charles' retirement in 1975, they remained in Akron and traveled globally. Charles and Geraldine moved to Green Valley, Arizona in 1991 where Charles died in 2000. Geraldine was active in the First Presbyterian Church and the University Women's Club of Akron. An avid reader and needleworker, she also volunteered at historic Stan Hywet Hall in Akron.

She was preceded by her sisters, Helen Lischer and Ruth Johnson.

At her request, donations in her memory can be made to The University of Iowa Foundation, c/o Matt Henderson, Director of Development, College of Engineering, The University of Iowa Foundation, P.O. Box 4550, Iowa City, IA 52244-4550.