Margaret McNamara

Margaret Craig McNamara (August 22, 1915 – February 3, 1981) was the founder of the nonprofit children's literacy organization Reading is Fundamental and the wife of the United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Life and work McNamara was born on August 22, 1915, in Spokane, Washington, and grew up in Alameda, California. McNamara attended University of California, Berkeley, where she met Robert McNamara, whom she would marry on August 13, 1940. Her husband's appointment by President John F. Kennedy as U.S. Secretary of Defense led to their move to Washington, D.C. Her experiences while tutoring three children in the District led to the formation of Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), a nonprofit children's literacy organization dedicated to making reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life. It is the largest literacy program in the country. On January 16, 1981, President Jimmy Carter awarded McNamara the Medal of Freedom for her work with RIF. She died of cancer eighteen days later, at the age of 65. In summer of 1981, her ashes were scattered by her family on a mountainside meadow at Buckskin Pass, near Snowmass Village, Colorado. Margaret Craig McNamara is commemorated on her husband's grave marker in Arlington National Cemetery.