Miriam Mae Guldin

Miriam Mae (nee Gerhart) Guldin was born on October 24, 1920, in Wernersville, PA. She was the fourth and youngest child of William Peter Gerhart and Mamie Yoder. She graduated from Wernersville High School in 1937 and McCann’s School of Business, Reading, PA, in 1939. She was employed by the Kurtz and Dowd Insurance Agency, Reading, PA until 1946.

At McCann’s, she met and casually dated a fellow student, Ira Snyder Guldin of Kutztown, PA. In October 1941, Ira enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Trained as an armorer, he joined the 95th Bomb Squadron (B-26 medium bombers). His unit served in the North Africa campaign and the invasions of Sicily, Italy, and southern France, winding up in Dijon, France on VE-Day. He returned home on September 29, 1945.

Throughout the war, Miriam and Ira wrote to one another. On Ira’s first day at home, Miriam drove to Kutztown to greet him. They were married September 22, 1946, and settled in Kutztown where Ira worked for the Kutztown Publishing Company. Miriam and Ira attended Trinity Lutheran Church together for 53 years until he died in August 1999.

Miriam was actively involved in community and church activities. She supported her three children through their Boy Scout and Girl Scout careers. She was co-leader of the local 4-H Club’s girls’ unit, teaching sewing, quilting, crocheting, knitting, and home economics. At Trinity, Miriam was active in the Quilting Circle. That group made a quilt for Hillary Clinton and traveled to the White House to present it to her.

After Ira’s death, Miriam continued to live in Kutztown until 2007 when at age 82 she relocated to Riderwood Village, an adult independent-living community in Silver Spring, MD. While still in Kutztown and throughout her first 15 years at Riderwood, Miriam was an avid knitter supporting the Seaman’s Institute in New York City who gave Christmas gift boxes to merchant mariners that included knit caps and scarves. In some Octobers, she would send over 30 caps and dozens of knit scarves to the Institute.

In August 2024 at age 102, Miriam transferred to the Assisted Living unit at Riderwood, where she lived for 20 months before dying on May 11, 2025—Mother’s Day—at 104 years of age. She is fondly remembered at Riderwood by residents and staff for her wide smile and happy disposition.

She is survived by her three children (Richard, Silver Spring, MD; Virginia Soskin, Durham, NC; and James, Springfield, MO), five grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren.