Mabel Rader passes away and the remaining half of the driving force behind Ironman magazine is gone. May she rest in peace.
Jan Todd
I am sad to report that my oldest friend, Mabel Rader, died yesterday (December 21, 2024) in Alliance, Nebraska. She was my "oldest friend" not in the sense that I knew her longer than anyone else (although I'm pretty sure we met for the first time in 1975--which IS a very long time ago), but because she lived to such a great age, dying at 106.
This photo was taken at Mabel's 100th birthday party which Terry and I were honored to attend in 2017. Mabel gave a short speech at the party, attended by more than 100 family members and friends. She talked about her childhood and how she had lived in a sod house and rode her horse to school because they lived so far out on the plains of western Nebraska. In this photo you can see how vigorous she still looks for 100, and sitting to her right, as you look at the photo, is her son, Gene and his wife, Janice, who also lived in Alliance and helped her in her later years. Beyond them is her other son, Jack, and then Terry Todd in the yellow shirt.
Many people will remember Mabel as Peary Rader's wife, and his partner in the publishing of Iron Man Magazine which they ran from 1936 to 1986. But Mabel's contributions to the world of physical culture go beyond just being Peary's wife. Mabel was the first woman to hold a referee card in all three weight sports: bodybuilding, powerlifting and weightlifting, and she was the first chairperson for women's weightlifting in the United States. She helped organize the first modern weightlifting meets just for women in the early 1980s and she also played an enormous role in the organization and fight for drug testing in women's powerlifting.
Mabel was smart and fearless and was always ready to stand up and fight for women's right to step onto a lifting platform, even if she didn't ever compete herself. I admired her greatly, even though she was well ahead of me in years, and her presence in the early days of "starting" both women's powerlifting and weightlifting was a real boon, as she was so respected by most of the men who still "controlled" those sports at the time.
Kim Beckwith wrote a great profile of Mabel in Iron Game History which you can access for free here:
https://starkcenter.org/.../mabel-rader-a-champion-for.../.
Rest in peace Mabel, and thank you for all you did to advance the world of women and strength.
