Ada Leigh Soles

Ada Leigh Soles Ada Leigh Soles, a respected civic leader and accomplished legislator, died on Monday, June 7, 2010. She was known throughout her career in public life for her commitment to ethics in government, fiscal accountability, public education and public libraries. Ada Leigh was born May l9, 1937 in Jacksonville, FL and was the only child of A. Thomas and Dorothy Winter Wall. She graduated from Landon High School as Valedictorian of the Class of 1955, following in the footsteps of her mother, who was the first Valedictorian of the high school. She attended Florida State University where she majored in English and graduated Magna Cum Laude. As a sophomore, she was elected President of her sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. She served as a student senator and as a Vice-President of the student body. During her years at FSU she was honored by election to several groups honoring academic achievement and leadership. Among the recognitions were her selection for Pi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Lambda Delta, and Mortar Board. She was among the ten students of the Class of l959 who were selected for the University Hall of Fame, and was chosen by vote of her classmates as the Outstanding Senior Woman of 1959. She married James R. Soles the summer after her graduation and they lived in Tallahassee Florida. She taught at Augusta Raa Junior High School, while Jim began graduate work. They later moved to Charlottesville Virginia and she taught at Albermarle County High School. When Jim completed his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia, they moved to College Park, Maryland, where their first daughter, Nancy Beth was born. In 1968 the family moved to Newark Delaware, where Jim assumed a position in the political science department at the University of Delaware and where their second daughter Catherine was born. For the next two years, Ada Leigh served as the National Visiting Director for Mortar Board, the national academic and leadership honorary, for the Middle Atlantic region. She very quickly became involved in community affairs working with the Friends of the Newark Library and the League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women. She served on the board of the AAUW in 1970. She served on the Newark Board of the League of Women Voters in l972, on the state board from l975-1977 and as State President of the League in l978-80. Continuing her work with libraries she served as a member of the New Castle County Library Advisory Board from l975-80 and again from 1992-1999. She served as Chair of the Board from l975-1977. She served as Chair of the State Library Advisory Board 1976-78. In 1991 she served as a Delaware delegate to the White House Conference on Libraries and Information Services. Her tireless work on behalf of public libraries was recognized both in Delaware and nationally. She received a Citation from the Delaware Council on Libraries in 1984, a plaque of appreciation from the Delaware Library Association in 1991 and a Distinguished Service Citation in 1985. In 2000, the American Library Association named her to their newly established Honor Roll of Library Advocates and as one the five living Delawareans who had contributed the most to Delaware Public Libraries during the 20th Century. In l980 the 23rd District Democratic Committee recruited her, as they had in l978, to run for State Representative. This time she agreed and won the seat, the first Democrat to hold the seat in over half a century. She customarily told people, “I was a part of Reagan Landslide.” She was elected five additional times to the seat and retired from the Legislature in 1992. In the legislature she served five terms on the powerful budget writing Joint Finance Committee. In that position she supported fiscal accountability, public education and public libraries. In addition to supporting major improvement in the Grant in Aid process, as co-chairman of the Grants in Aid Reform Committee, her proudest legislative achievement was to increase public library funding by one thousand percent during her tenure. She also served on the House Rules Committee, State Clearing House Committee, Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee. During this period she also served on a number of special committees and task forces including, the Public Transit Task Force, the AIDs Advisory Task Force, The New Castle County Resources, Conservation and Development Committee, the Governor’s Commission on Health Care Cost Management, the White Clay Creek Task Force, the Newark City Roundtable, and the Christina School District Long Range Planning Committee. During her tenure as a State legislator she and Jim became the first couple to ever be awarded jointly the Liberty Bell Award for public service by the Delaware Bar Association. She later received the Bar Association’s distinguished Legislative Award in l991. Ada Leigh retired from the legislature in l992 and when Governor Michael Castle visited the General Assembly to recognize retiring legislators, he called her “the perfect legislator”. Newly elected Governor Tom Carper appointed her to his transition team and later named her Senior Advisor to the Governor. When she was named to the Hall of Fame of Delaware in l993, Governor Carper told the assembly that “most Governors choose a wise man as their Senior Advisor, but I have been fortunate to find a wise woman to assist me.” In her role in the Governor’s office she had special responsibilities with the Council of State University Presidents, the Professional Standards Committee, the Higher Education Commission, the Business/Public Education Council, the Project 21 Steering Committee and the Education Commission of the States. Upon retiring after two years, she received the Medal of Distinction from the University for her “contributions to the university, the state and the nation.” She also received the “Order of the First State” the highest honor bestowed on a citizen by the state. In retirement she continued her service on the Board of Meals on Wheels, the New Castle Library Advisory Committee, the Higher Education Commission and the Board of the University of Delaware Library Associates. She greatly enjoyed returning to her beloved book group and the two soup groups she shared with her close friends. As her health declined she gradually relinquished her responsibilities. She remained on the Board of the University of Delaware Library Associates until the time of her death. Her last two awards came years after her retirement when she received the Carrie Chapman Catt Award for outstanding community service for the League of Women Voters of New Castle County in 2002 and in 2003 received, jointly with her husband Jim, the rarely presented Tel Tuffo Award from the Delaware Humanities Forum. The award has not been presented since that time. Ada Leigh is survived by her husband of fifty years, Jim of Newark, two daughters, Nancy Beth Garrett and her husband Dan of Sunnyvale, CA and Catherine Soles Pomeroy and her husband Paul of Newark, and six grandchildren, Elizabeth, Tom, Maggie and Jack Garrett of Sunnyvale, CA and Paul IV and Julia Pomeroy of Newark. She is also survived by five first cousins who she viewed as siblings: Winter Giddings, Glen G. Giddings, Mary Adda Giddings, Catherine Winter, and Frank Winter. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, June 14th at St. James Episcopal Church Millcreek, 2106 St. James Church Road, Wilmington, DE 19808. The family suggests gifts to Friends of the Newark Free Library, 750 Library Ave., Newark, DE 19711 or Food Bank of Delaware, 14 Garfield Way, Newark, DE 19713. To express an online condolence, visit www.strano-feeley.com. Strano & Feeley Family Funeral Home 302-731-5459

Ada Leigh Soles

May 19, 1937 - June 7, 2010

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