Izant, Grace Goulder, -1984

Cleveland, Ohio journalist, writer and local historian. Izant's series, "Ohio scenes and citizens", appeared weekly in the Sunday Plain Dealer, 1944-69, and led to her book of the same title. She also wrote "This is Ohio", a collection of anecdotes for each of Ohio's counties, "John D. Rockefeller: the Cleveland years", and "Hudson's heritage", a history of Hudson, Ohio.

Grace Goulder Izant (1893-1984) was a journalist and writer on Ohio history. Born in Cleveland, Goulder graduated from Vassar College in 1914 then worked as a society editor and women's feature writer for the Plain Dealer until America's entrance into World War I. As an employee of the Young Women's Christian Association, she helped establish rest centers for soldiers and sailors on leave in New York and Europe. After her 1919 marriage to Robert Izant (a former Plain Dealer movie editor and World War I soldier), she retired from writing until 1944 when the Plain Dealer purchased an article she had written on Columbus, the Ohio state capitol. This became the first of a weekly Sunday Magazine series entitled "Ohio Scenes and Citizens" which ran until 1969. In 1953 her first book, This is Ohio, was published. A collection of anecdotal histories of each Ohio county, it was revised in 1965, one year after the publication of Ohio Scenes and Citizens, a collection of her Sunday Magazine articles. In 1972 her third book was published. John D. Rockefeller, The Cleveland Years explored the tycoon's early life Cleveland. Her last work, Hudson's Heritage, a Chronicle of the Founding and Flowering of the Village of Hudson, Ohio, was published posthumously in 1985. During her lifetime Goulder received awards and citations form the Women's City Club, New England Society, American Association for State and Local History, University Club, Western Reserve Historical Society, Harding Memorial Association, and Ohio Library Association. She served as trustee for the Western Reserve Historical Society, Ohioana Library Association, Ohio Bicentennial Commission, Hudson Heritage Association, and Western Reserve Early Settlers Association.