LOU MANDLER
QUICK BIO
Lou Mandler grew up on a wheat and cattle farm in northeastern Montana. After graduation from Montana State University, she taught in Ardrossan, Alberta and Idaho Falls, Idaho before attending the Bread Loaf School of English of Middlebury College. There she earned a Master’s degree and met her husband.
She has since lived in Connecticut. During her career at Canterbury School in Connecticut, she received a Geraldine R. Dodge Fellowship for Secondary School Teachers, a grant to the National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar on Native American Literature, and a Joseph Klingenstein Fellowship to Teacher’s College of Columbia University.
Now retired from education, Lou retains an interest in the family farm in Sheridan County and visits Montana and a Maine village regularly.
LATEST WORK
“As Lou Mandler’s sprightly written, extensively researched biography reveals, Fraser was the rare politician: a hard-working, imaginative visionary with pragmatic flexibility. He rightfully claims the title as ‘Billings’s greatest mayor.’ ”
– Keith Edgerton, MSU–Billings
OCTOBER 6, 2022
BOOK TALK AND SIGNING
The Montana Historical Society Press invites you to join author Lou Mandler for a presentation about her newly released book, Montana’s Visionary Mayor: Willard E. Fraser.
Thursday, October 6
4:30–6:00 pm
Montana Historical Society (lobby)
225 North Roberts Street, Helena
Refreshments will be served
Montana’s Visionary Mayor will be available for purchase
AVAILABLE
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Montana’s Visionary Mayor, Willard E. Fraser [Billings]
By Lou Mandler. Softcover, 376 pages. (Expected release in September 2022)
Availability: In stock
$26.95
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RECENT ARTICLE
Meet ‘Montana’s Mayor,’ Willard E. Fraser of Billings immortalized in new book
By Darrell Ehrlick - Daily Montanan, September 26, 2022
Willard Edward Fraser (1907–1972) was the progressive and often controversial four-term mayor of Billings, Montana, during the turbulent 1960s, but his reach and impact lay far beyond the borders of the Magic City. A true humanitarian, Fraser was equally comfortable rubbing elbows with high-level politicians and celebrities—like his father-in-law, poet Robert Frost—and hobnobbing with the “bums” on Skid Row. He tackled air and water pollution, cleaned up urban blight, and ensured that women, youth, and ethnic minorities were not marginalized. Passionate about Montana’s historical and cultural heritage, Mayor Fraser promoted Billings and Montana to the world.