Mathes, Miriam Snow.

Miriam Snow Mathes, born March 3, 1905, in Fall River, Mass., earned her BA from New York State College, Albany (1926) and graduate degrees from Teachers College Columbia University (MA) and Columbia University School of Library Service (BS and MS). In 1934, following teaching appointments in New York State and at Peabody College in Tennessee, she began a long professional career at the Bellingham State Normal School in Bellingham, Wash. (subsequently Western Washington University), serving as Librarian of Children's Literature, Campus School Librarian, and professor of Library Science before retiring in 1971. She married Homer B. Mathes, son of the insitution's first president, in 1951; he died in 1956. An avid traveler, Miriam Mathes' hobbies also included collecting figurines depicting the act of reading. She bequeathed her extensive collection to the University in 1999, in addition to establishing several scholarships and generously supporting other University endeavors. Miriam Snow Mathes died on January 31, 2003, in Lacey, Wash.