Meda has a small and somewhat faded snapshot in a place of honor in her University of Hawaii office.

The photo sits in a simple plastic frame on top of one of the old filing cabinets that line one wall in the office, 16 drawers filled with decades of academic papers of all kinds, class lists, teaching notes, collections of published articles related to her various academic interests and specialties, conference notes and reminders, administrative forms required for past trips, clipping files on university and campus issues, correspondence from the days back when messages were on paper and sent via the post office, anything and everything reflecting her long tenure with the university and the broader world of academia.

In the picture, she is standing with Professor Ann Keppel in front of the Women’s Studies office on the 7th floor of Saunders Hall. Both look radiant. It was obviously a happy occasion.

I think this was taken in 1986, half a lifetime ago, when Meda got her first half-time appointment in what was then the Women’s Studies Program, and Ann Keppel was the incoming director.

Meda had started full-time teaching at Honolulu Community College in 1974, received her Ph.D. a couple of years later, and then for several years was split between teaching at HCC and doing research in the Center for Youth Research, then part of the School of Social Work at the Manoa Campus. The part-time position in Women’s Studies ended her commute between HCC and Manoa, and within a couple of years it grew into a full time faculty job.

Meda succeeded Ann as Women’s Studies director beginning in 1990, prior to Keppel’s retirement in 1992. Meda claimed Keppel as a mentor and, more importantly, a good friend, until Ann’s death in 2002.

The Women’s Studies Program became a department with its own undergraduate degree in 2012, and Meda became the department’s first chair. She retired in June 2020 after 51 years on the University of Hawaii payroll, beginning in 1969 as a graduate teaching assistant, and was quickly awarded the rank of Professor Emerita.