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Martha McClure Ezell ’34

Martha McClure Ezell ’34, May 2, 1996, in McMinnville, Oregon. After graduating from Reed, Martha earned a Washington teaching certificate through graduate work at the University of Washington and the University of Oregon Extension in Portland. She taught for three years in a small German-Russian community in Eastern Washington while continuing graduate work for an MA in German at the University of Oregon. After receiving her degree in 1938, Martha attended the University of California, Berkeley, to continue her studies in German. There she met her future husband, James Ezell, and the couple was married in 1940. They settled in Vancouver, Washington and had two sons. In 1948, she went to work for the Library Association of Portland in the new 16-mm sound film collection, thus launching her career in librarianship. She transferred to the Fort Vancouver Regional Library in 1952 to take charge of their film collection and then took a leave of absence to study librarianship at the University of Washington Graduate Library School, earning a degree in 1957. In 1959, she took a position as librarian at Linfield College, and she served as head librarian there from 1960 until her retirement in 1976. She and her husband lived in a house he built in 1969 in the foothills of the coast range near McMinnville, where she continued to live after his death in 1979. She remained active in the McMinnville community until the time of her death and was especially involved in the Grey Panthers and peace organizations at national and local levels. She is survived by her two sons, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Appeared in Reed magazine: February 1997

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