Margaret Maunder

Journalist, Author, Entrepreneur

Margaret Fornell Maunder (aka Mara) was born in Montevideo. Not Uruguay. Minnesota.

She graduated from the UofM top notch J-School, then went on to become a Peabody Award
journalist, reporting from such places as St. Louis, Washington, Boston, London, Dublin,
South America (Colombia) and USSR.

When she covered the one-and-only all-St. Louis World series in 1944, gender discrimination
barred her from the press box. She turned the tables and wrote about being denied access.
(The Cardinals beat the Browns, 4 games to 2.)

At that time Margaret became a union member of American Newspaper Guild (CIO).
Stateside she worked as the byline staff feature writer for the Globe Democrat. Her interviews
with such celebrities as Mary Pickford and Jack Benny were touted on KMOX radio. In the
foreign field she became a stringer for the Post Dispatch.

In Washington in April 1945 Margaret stood with a small group of pencil-and-paper reporters
around President Franklin D. Roosevelts executive desk in the Oval Office. Sitting in his
wheel chair, the ailing President discussed the recent Yalta Conference, where he had met
with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. FDR died in Warm Springs, Georgia, a few
weeks after this, his last press conference in the White House.

Earlier, on her first journalism job, Margaret sat beside Eleanor Roosevelt in a propeller-
driven DC-3 from St. Paul to Seattle, with refueling stop in Missoula. As was her wont, the
First Lady knitted during most of what was then a long trip. Though keen for an interview,
Margaret resisted invading Mrs. Roosevelts privacy, thinking the busy woman might also be
composing her widely syndicated daily newspaper column, My Day.

In London during worldwide buzz over Elizabeth and Philips royal wedding, Margaret walked
through the lavish palace foyer to an expansive room displaying their wedding gifts for press
viewing. What a mlange! Gifts ranged from crocheted potholders to a pair of ornately
engraved E&P sterling silver -- stove lids? All bespoke the affection flowing from the
Commonwealth and the respect of heads of state. Later Margaret stood front row at Victorias
Circle when E&P passed close by in their horse-drawn golden carriage, after vows in
Westminster Abbey.

During the dread polio epidemic that paralyzed or killed many in the Fifties, Margaret traveled
to a valley deep, deep in the Andes Mountains with a World Health Organization (WHO)
team on a field trial of live virus polio vaccine. Concerned parents carrying babies and small
children came on foot out of near or distant coffee plantations, each couple hoping to get one
spoonful of the pink liquid for their child. Margarets reporting was translated into many
languages and published with her photos.

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In Moscow near the end of the Cold War, Margaret reported on journalism under communism
and witnessed the Nixon-Khrushchev kitchen debate. The two world leaders made news
arguing over the benefits of capitalism vs. communism. No, K. did not pound his shoe. That
assignment brought Margaret the coveted Peabody Award for excellence in the mass media.

Arrival of three daughters over several years confined Margaret to home ground, where her
nose for news trained on the local level. In St. Paul she edited a weekly paper The Highland
Villager, her newborn third daughter sleeping in a baby carrier near her desk. Once a week
the paper went to press. Then Mom worked at the shop with printers putting the paper to
bed. At this time she also freelanced articles to national magazines and Sunday
supplements.

Not once but twice the kindness of strangers saved Margaret from what seems certain
death. One sunny day in Chicago, the 7-year-old went to Lincoln Park beach with friend Vera
and Veras grandma. The scene, typical summer fun at the big lake, like an inland ocean.
Tragedy was starting to happen, but a woman sitting on a park bench stopped it.
Among the crowd of splashing, screaming kids, she noticed one child up to her chin
in water and struggling not to go deeper. Fully dressed and wearing a hat, she waded
into the lake to her waist, reached for the girls hand and pulled her to shore, safe from
the pull of Lake Michigans notorious undertow. Still trembling, Margaret watched that
special lady walk away, dripping, toward Michigan Boulevard.

Years later in Connecticut a 14-year old boy looking for odd jobs got no response at
Margarets back door, though her car was in place. He walked around the house, smelled
gas and ran home to call the gas company. Within minutes, an emergency crew found a
faulty furnace pumping lethal carbon monoxide into her home.

Her motto, Jcrit donc je suis reflects Margarets passion for writing, especially
investigative reporting. In 2010 after several bouts with lawyers and judges, followed by years
of law library research, she published her nonfiction book Those Darn Lawyers. The book is
not a rant but a fully footnoted, documented look at the U.S. civil justice system,
including a laymans need for professional counsel. The title of Chapter Five advises
Yes, Get a Lawyer. A leading Hartford attorney wrote. Maunder is the best
nonlawyer lawyer in the State of Connecticut.

A court case on which she represented her small business became landmark, cited by
many, including the Vermont Supreme Court. Her name on search engines brings up a
variety of links discussing legal issues in that case.

When Margaret and her J-School husband went separate ways, she bought a 4-acre farm in
Hamden, Connecticut and also founded an advertising/PR business with the motto, Words,
pictures, sounds in mass communications.

On the farm she ran a pick-your-own business with the extant strawberry plants. When they
petered out, she had twig-sized evergreens planted. Twice a year as they grew, foresters
with deft slashes of their machetes sheared them to promote dense and symmetrical growth.
Ten years passed. West Woods Farm became the go-to place for beautiful Douglas fir
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Christmas trees. After harvesting them, Margaret became a real estate developer,
subdividing her land and building houses.

The first big client of her ad agency was European Health Spa with two locations in
Connecticut and one in Rhode Island. They were glitzy exercise palaces with purple
carpeting, mirrored walls and a health bar -- so different from the stale socks smell of man-
friendly gyms of the past. (As part of the new fitness movement, the Spa sought to lure the
female clientele.) Traveling among the three locations, Margaret sat in the back seat of her
69 Plymouth Barracuda, writing ad copy and taking calls on Car 32, her handle on WELIs
mobile radio network. Driver Otis Ott announced their arrival at destination.

Margaret the innovator founded Keep In Touch, Inc., a phone reassurance program for senior
live-alones. Then she recruited two friends, a nurse and a social worker, and founded the first
home health care agency in Connecticut, HealthPower, Inc. In the Sixties and early
Seventies, home health care had yet to become a part of the American health care system. A
sick person needing help at home had no one to call but a maid service or cleaning company.
Visiting nurses made short visits, such as to change a dressing, but qualified hourly and
overnight caregivers were unavailable.

With Margarets ad agency office as a base, the three women recruited a range of helpers
from nurses aides to licensed practical nurses to registered nurses. They also set up
payment arrangements with the State and insurance companies. First patient: the retired
president of a major steel company whose elderly wife struggled to care for him at home.

In response to the dictum, Find a need and fill it, HealthPower grew to serve a widening
spectrum of the community, but things changed when Connecticut mandated licensing for
home health care businesses. New rules applied. The companys hospital-trained nurse
lacked credentials a college degree (BS) in nursing plus four years of nursing experience,
two years in public health nursing.

As administrator, Margaret needed a graduate degree in business. She worked her way
through most of the MBA curriculum at nearby Quinnipiac University (QU) in Hamden. But
underfunding a common problem of start-ups -- played havoc with HealthPowers
business plan. Those new regulations and lack of deep pockets to float the payroll were the
companys undoing. Law requires employees to be paid on time, but state agencies and
insurance companies often lagged months behind in paying their accounts. Margaret did
what financially squeezed small business owners often do: used FICA money for
operating expenses.

Of course, the IRS took note and moved to padlock her home if she didnt pay up by a date
certain. In a bind, she put classified ads in the Wall Street Journal and New York
Times seeking a buyout company. Though small, HealthPower had two big assets a valid
home health care license and an established client roster. Responses came from as far
away as Florida. HealthPower directors voted to sell for a price that narrowly kept
Margarets home out of hock

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Despite her busy family and business life, Margaret found time for community service, as a
Girl Scout troop leader, a baby cuddler at Yale New Haven Hospital, and for 29 years, chair
of the USDA-affiliated New Haven County Soil and Water Conservation District.

She cooks, too. On a dare from a boyfriend, Margaret entered a statewide cooking contest.
One of eight finalists, she cooked her recipe before a noontime crowd at Hartfords Civic
Center. Judges awarded her a First Prize certificate and $300 for her original recipe for (yes)
pizza.

She is now or has been affiliated with the American Newspaper Guild, Women in
Communications (WIC), Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), Mensa and Intertel.

Margaret takes pride in her offspring. Her firstborn was named Perinatal Nurse of the Year in
Washington State. She traveled to Liberia and Tajikistan to bring lifesaving skills to midwives
and obstetricians in countries with high mother and infant death rates. Margarets middle
daughter is a designer and theme park artist. For an Indian tribe she designed an activity
center in the shape of a turtle. Architects and builders translated her whimsical scale model
into a novel two-story building. Youngest is a two-time Emmy Award winner in TV computer
graphics. Margarets granddaughter is a young lawyer advocating for children, and her 16-
year-old grandson has won first place in three writing competitions.

At 94 Margaret has goals, many: Finish several books-in-progress, write her memoirs and
visit Montevideo, Uruguay. Of that travel adventure, she says, Maybe, maybe not.

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