Gladys Meier

Gladys Pauline (Wilson) Johnson Meier, 97, of Fort Dodge, passed away on Thursday, February 13, 2025, at Friendship Haven. A Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday, February 23, 2025 3:00 pm at Grace Lutheran Church, 211 South 9th Street, Fort Dodge, with a visitation time prior starting at 1:30pm. Entombment will take place in the Chapel of Peace Mausoleum at North Lawn Cemetery at a later date.

Laufersweiler Funeral Home is serving the family.

Survivors include her daughters Joan Drewes and husband Billy of West Babylon, NY, Martha Kersbergen and husband Bob of Fort Dodge, 6 grandchildren; Rose (Dan) Kelly, Scott McColley, Rachel (Tim) Allen, Matthew (Maria) McColley, Grace (Chris Scheben) and Amalia Drewes, and two great grandchildren, Marshall and Madeline.

She was preceded in death by her parents S.E. and Rose (Johnson) Wilson of Harcourt, IA, first husband, Richard "Dick" Johnson, husband L. Lester Meier, daughters Karen Johnson, Donna Johnson, and her sister Roberta Renberg.

Gladys Pauline Wilson was born on March 7, 1927 in Harcourt, IA. She was raised and educated there and graduated from Harcourt High School in 1946. Gladys then attended Saint Joseph's Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Fort Dodge and graduated in 1949. Gladys worked as an R.N. at Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines and provided private duty nursing in Sac City and Carroll, IA.

On June 4, 1950 she married Richard "Dick" Johnson. (Divorced 1970.) The couple lived in Emmettsburg, IA, and Carrol, IA, before establishing their home in Fort Dodge. Gladys put her career on hold for 14 years raising their four daughters and returned to nursing in 1965. In 1968 Gladys was a charter member of the opening of the Intensive Care Unit at (the then) Lutheran Hospital in Fort Dodge. (UnityPoint Trinity Regional.) She immersed herself in studying Coronary Heart Disease and attended lectures, symposiums and workshops for nursing in these critical care arenas. In 1975 she taught courses on Electro-cardiology at Iowa Central Community College.

On September 24, 1976 she married L. Lester Meier and the couple lived in Fort Dodge.

Gladys traveled to the jungles of Eastern Honduras in 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991 to assist in conducting health clinics and hands-on nursing for the people along the Patuca River. It was a highlight of her nursing career. She was a self-made speaker who gave community talks on her trips to Honduras, the Iowa Corn Show, and Heart-Health.

She left hospital nursing in 1975 and worked for Webster County Public Health as a public health nurse, retiring in 1991. Her profession was not just a career, she considered it a calling.

Gladys was a longtime member of Grace Lutheran Church and lived a life of service to others.