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The author, A. (Aletha) Roberta Hutchison Ostar’s (aka Hutchie in high school, Bobbie in college and as an adult) educational career began with two notable events in grade school—in first grade she refused to hold her pencil correctly for the Parker Penmanship writing model; she got a D in spelling in third grade. Both events were unacceptable in her family. So she proceeded to graduate from Camp Hill High School as valedictorian in 1945 and was Editor-in-chief of the HIGH LIGHT, the school paper her senior year. At Penn State she continued her journalism career by choosing it as her major and being named Editor of LA VIE, the yearbook, and News Editor of the DAILY COLLEGIAN, the student newspaper in her senior year, 1948. After working one year as a news reporter for the MCKEESPORT DAILY NEWS In Pennsylvania, and one year each as a book designer at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Press and the Thomas Y. Crowell Publishers in New York City, she followed the tradition of her times by retiring to have her children and becoming an active community volunteer: neighborhood newsletter, Girl Scouts, leader and adult educator, church volunteer, etc.

In 1979, with two children in college and one in 11th grade, as a volunteer, she created and managed the annual programs for spouses of the presidents of state universities and colleges for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (aascu) of which her husband Allan had been president since 1965. This was at the height of the feminist movement when the role of spouses as fund raisers and representatives of their schools—unpaid, of course—was a very controversial topic. She conducted three surveys of these spouses for aascu and then, sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation and the Lilley Foundation, she published a survey of the representational roles of a group of college and university presidents and spouses from all universities in the US—public and private—titled PUBLIC ROLES, PRIVATE LIVES.

Now, at the age of 92 she has finally written down the stories and some of the lore of her fiercely loyal Iowa Mother, as her children had been begging her to do!