Gladys C. Pearlstine, 88, Montco dynamo

Gladys C. Pearlstine, 88, a civic-minded dynamo who infused energy and perspective into social and educational issues in Montgomery County, died Monday of cardiac arrest at Bryn Mawr Hospital.

A longtime resident of Collegeville, she moved to the Quadrangle in Haverford in 1992. She was the widow of Raymond Pearlstine, a prominent Norristown lawyer, who died in 2000.

After graduating from Ambler High School, she earned a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1940 from the University of Pennsylvania. That year she married and moved to Collegeville. When her husband went off to fight in World War II, she volunteered for the Red Cross at Valley Forge General Hospital.

The couple raised their son and two daughters in a home, which they called "R Glad House," that borders the campus of Ursinus College. In 1992, she and her husband, lifetime trustees of the college, donated the home to Ursinus. It is now the college president's residence.

"Glad cared deeply about education and the faculty," said John Strassburger, president of Ursinus College. "When we renovated the house to accommodate entertaining 40 people, Glad said, 'This is exactly what I would have done.' "

Mrs. Pearlstine brought a cosmopolitan flair to the small farming town of Collegeville, which had a population of about 900 in the early 1950s. She was president of the Collegeville school board and served on the Perkiomen Valley school board through the 1960s.

Mrs. Pearlstine was a visionary for improving education in Montgomery County. In 1965, she was a founding trustee of Montgomery County Community College and later chairwoman of the board of trustees. She helped form the Pennsylvania Federation of Community College Trustees and was on Gov. Richard Thornburgh's Commission on the Financing of Higher Education.

When she was vice president of the Freedom Valley Girl Scout Council, she made her daughters wear their Brownie uniforms and sell Girl Scout cookies door-to-door.

"I didn't have to wear the uniform, but she made me sell the cookies too," said her son, Norman, a former editor of Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal. "She also made me and my friend Drew Lewis" - who served as President Ronald Reagan's secretary of transportation - "paint the swimming pool at the Obelisk [Pa.] Girl Scout Camp."

Mrs. Pearlstine underwent mastectomies in 1959 and 1969 because of breast cancer, and during that time was a counselor in the American Cancer Society's Reach for Recovery program. Both of her daughters also are breast cancer survivors.

"Our mother instilled a strong work ethic in us," said daughter Nancy Conger, who is president of a financial-planning firm. "She was fun and kind and taught us to give to others. She dressed us like Santa and drove us around town to deliver Christmas cookies to neighbors."

Her other daughter, Maggie Pearlstine, is president of a London-based literary agency bearing her name.

In addition to her children, Mrs. Pearlstine is survived by three grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a sister.

A memorial service will be held 2 p.m. tomorrow at Ursinus College, Bomberger Hall, Collegeville. Burial is private.