David Meeks papers

David Martin Meeks was born in Muncie on June 19, 1910. After graduating from Muncie High School in 1928, Meeks attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and graduated from Yale University in 1930. He later attended Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

From 1937 to 1940, Meeks lived in Hawaii, working briefly for the Hawaiian Pineapple Company and then with Shell Oil Company in Honolulu. In 1940, he returned to Muncie to work in his family`s business, then known as Meeks and Sons Mortuary. The firm was started in 1844 by Meeks` great-grandfather, Robert, and Robert`s brother, Isaac, and is currently the oldest continuously operated business in Delaware County.

In 1943, at the height of World War II, Meeks received an appointment as a diplomatic courier with the U.S. State Department. He was responsible for delivering secret materials to U.S. missions around the globe. Following conclusion of the war, Meeks returned to Muncie and rejoined the family business, where he eventually became president. For nearly fifty continuous years as a mortician, Meeks was involved in arranging funeral services for thousands of local residents and those with family ties in east central Indiana.

Meeks was very active in the Muncie community and served in several organizations. He served as chairman of the Salvation Army and Mutual Savings Bank boards and as a member of the board of directors for the Muncie-Delaware Chamber of Commerce, Boy Scouts, Sheltered Workshop, YWCA, and the United Way. He was also a past president and member of the Muncie Rotary Club, and a member of the Muncie Club and First Presbyterian Church.

In addition to his business and community service, Meeks also had an avid interest in aviation. After receiving his private pilot`s license in 1934, Meeks became a member of the OX-5 Pioneers, a group of aviators founded to honor the famous aicraft engine. David Meeks died in 1992 at the age of 82.