Margaret Smyth Emmons ’44

Dr. Margaret Smyth Emmons ’44 died Jan. 16, 2010, in Iowa City. She was 86.

Emmons was a physician from 1954 through 1986, served as president of the Clinton County Medical Society, and worked to establish an associate degree nursing program at Clinton Community College. She taught at medical schools in Israel and Ghana, and served as a board member and president of Self Help International, a world hunger organization helping farmers in Ghana and Nicaragua become self-sufficient. She received a Distinguished Achievement Award from Cornell in 1999.

In receiving that award, she was called a humanitarian of the highest rank and recognized as an example of learning and service. In addition to her humanitarian work, Emmons created a series of geography card games called Go Travel. After first playing homemade versions of the game with her grandchildren, she created a business, travelbygames.com, that eventually included games on Africa, South America, and the United States. Before her death, she completed a new version of the game on China.

She is survived by her children, Kathy Emmons, Sally Emmons Myers ’76, Susan Emmons ’78, and Robert Emmons; three grandchildren; a great-granddaughter; three nieces and several cousins.