Dates

• Existence: 1921 - 2014

Biography

Margaret Davis Collison, a Democratic party activist and member of the Iowa Board of Regents in the 1970s, was born in Missouri, the daughter of F.W. Davis. Collison received an Associate of Arts degree from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri in 1940, and a B.S. in Nursing from Saint Louis University in 1943. It was here she met Robert M. Collison, and the two were married in 1943. The raised eleven children, in Oskaloosa Iowa, where the Collisons continue to reside.

Margaret Collison was chosen to sit on the Iowa Board of Regents in 1971. This body governs the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, the Iowa School for the Deaf, and the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School. During her tenure on the Board, Collison dealt with many issues concerning each of these institutions, from dormitory and dining provision to hiring administrators to collective bargaining for faculty. Her term ended in 1977.

Collison was active politically and socially as well. She was a member of the League of Women Voters of Iowa; the Board of Directors of the Oskaloosa Retirement Homes, Inc.; the Festival Guild of Ames, Iowa; and the Board of Curators of Stephens College. She was actively involved in Roxanne Conlin's unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign of 1982 as a coordinator of polling volunteers. She worked on an oral history project, "Conversations with Three Women of the Heartland"", a documentary of the lives of Mary Louise Smith, Dora Wilson, and Bernadine Pieper. Collison also attended and participated in numerous conferences, including ""Iowa in the World Economy"", ""The Way Up"" #I & II, ""Racism: A Women's Issue"", and ""Building Math Confidence"".

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