Marian McQuiston, 2004 Inductee

A true Fountain Hills pioneer, Mrs. McQuiston is credited with being the founder of the Fountain Hills Library. As the manager of the community’s contract post office (she was known as Fountain Hills “first postmistress”), she left her mark on the town’s history by starting a book exchange at the post office in the early 1970s. She also volunteered to start the library at Fountain Hills Elementary School (later became Four Peaks Elementary) and was hired as the school’s first librarian. She taught hundreds of our town’s children how to use and appreciate a library. At the time of her death in March 2001, a former student called her “a town treasure who nurtured her students’ love of reading.” On her own time, she often took student volunteers to charity book sales where they traversed the aisles in search of intriguing purchases to expand the library’s collection. Mrs. McQuiston was a teacher in a league of her own.