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• BACK TO HALL OF HONOR
• 1993
• 1994-95
• 1995-96
• 1998

Poem by Richard Stahl

1994-95

The Power of Incandescence

For Lilah Mergy Bell, Malvin L. Hansen, Robert B. Lapham and Gifford M. Mast

As if asking the basic questions

weren't enough, you invited

the harder ones inventors

spend years answering, the ones that burn

the spirit, the ones spreading light and transmitting signals

of service. Like the Lady with the Lamp,

you inspired more health care, nursing

at the community's bedside of body

and soul, always serving others

as "Outstanding Iowan"

and "Most Admired Woman," two titles

registering high on humanity's healthy

heart machine. When you turned on the radio

and television, you broadcast

market prices, soil conservation, and futures,

everything to feed a nation. Then,

like turning on a three-way switch,

you brightened continents

of experience for companies

of travelers. Your devotion powered

a quiet warrior into action like duty

called to serve and win. When General MacArthur

awarded you the Distinguished Service Cross

for guerrilla tactics in the Philippines,

he knew your soldier's force. Shaking hands

with Thomas Alva Edison sparked

the work of science to illuminate

fields of design, those

timing devices, traffic controls,

and new learning systems making

friends of safety and knowledge.

Your collective hands raised a power

station of patients designed

to brighten the needs of our lives.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

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