Minnesota’s literary community lost a seminal leader with the recent death of Mary Ida Thomson, one of the founders of the Minnesota Book Awards and a Trustee Emerita of The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. A Matching Gift Memorial grant is announced by The Katherine B. Andersen Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation.
Excerpt:
“Minnesota Festival of the Book co-founder, Mary Ida Thomson, dies at 92”
by Mary Ann Grossman, Pioneer Press (6/3/2014)
Mary Ida Thomson was often in the news in 1988 when she co-chaired the first Minnesota Festival of the Book as chair of The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library Board of Trustees. She served on the boards of St. Croix Valley Girl Scouts, Minnesota Church Foundation, the Charities Review Council and People Inc. and was involved with the Harriet Tubman Center. Many Sundays found her counting the collections at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul. Thomson was elected to The Friends Board in 1979. She served until 1992, the last six years as president. She has since then been honored as a Trustee Emeritus. “Mary Ida was kind, warm, generous, very smart and insightful,” said Peter Pearson, who was hired as The Friends’ first executive director (now president) when Thomson was in office.
One of Thomson’s lasting legacies will be the Minnesota Festival of the Book, a 10-day event that drew thousands of people to Rice Park and other local venues. Thomson got the idea when she and Leslie Wolfson, festival events coordinator for The Friends, traveled to Key West, Florida, to visit that city’s book fair. The idea for a local festival became reality when Scott Walker, then publisher of Graywolf Press, joined the board as a community representative. The Friends provided $29,000 in staff support and specific expenditures for the festival, a celebration of literature that included the first Minnesota Book Awards. Thomson admitted in a Pioneer Press interview before the festival that it was a leap of faith for the group to be at the forefront of this huge event requiring coordination of 96 organizations. “It was the right idea at the right time,” she said.
“Mary Ida’s friends are concerned that her contributions, particularly to the community of the book, will go unheralded,” said Mary Treacy, past director of Metronet, the umbrella organization that serves local libraries. “It’s no exaggeration to say that the strength and breadth of Minnesota’s book community rests on the vision of Mary Ida. She sought out and nurtured people and ideas.” Edie Meissner, Book Festival project director, recalls that “Mary Ida was constantly supportive. She didn’t have a lot of ego. She just worked hard.”
In 1991, Thomson and another Friends stalwart, the late Jeanne Fischer, showed what advocacy meant after the St. Paul City Council tried to cut $400,000 from the library budget. The women organized group members to show up at hearings and make speeches from the floor in defense of libraries. With one week’s notice they obtained 3,000 signatures from people who opposed the cuts. The City Council listened, and $100,000 was reinstated.
Although Thomson’s memory loss kept her from participating in activities, her friends have not forgotten the impact she had on people and organizations. Treacy said: “A n ever-growing circle of ‘Friends of Mary Ida’ share memories of an extraordinary woman whose gentle hand and wise counsel touched so many lives. To the end, she never lost her sense of dignity.”
She will be remembered at a memorial service on Friday, June 27 at 11:00 AM at First Congregational Church of Minnesota, 500 Eighth Ave. S.E., Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414. All are invited to attend a reception at the church immediately following the service. Read obituary>>
Announcing the Matching Grant
The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library is now pleased to announce that The Katherine B. Andersen Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation has offered a matching gift challenge grant for memorial gifts in memory of Mary Ida Thomson, up to $10,000. All gifts to the memorial book endowment fund will be matched, dollar-for dollar by this grant. Please keep in mind that for every $25 contributed to the Book Endowment Fund, a bookplate inscribed with Mary Ida’s name and, if desired, the name of the donor, will be placed in a newly purchased book at the Library. A gift of $500 will endow the purchase of a book each year in perpetuity. Memorial gifts are also acknowledged in The Friends’ and the Saint Paul Public Library’s shared annual report. Click here to learn more or make a secure, online memorial gift now. Contributors of long-lasting tributes of $500 or more are automatically members of The Donor Society, which recognizes The Friends’ most generous individual supporters. Smaller gifts count toward the cumulative $500 annual giving level required for Donor Society membership.