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Longest-serving employee of Hoover museum retires
by Tom Quinlan, Special to the Times · News · October 04, 2023
She was only in fourth grade when Herbert Hoover died in 1964, but after working more than 47 years at the museum and library dedicated in his honor, Pam Hinkhouse knows more than a thing or two about the 31st president of the United States.
Like many of her friends and neighbors, Hinkhouse, who retired earlier this summer from her job as the Herbert Hoover Museum store manager, has a fondness and deep appreciation for the first president born west of the Mississippi River.
It’s only natural, of course, after a lifetime of immersing herself in the rich history within the walls of the museum, as well as the library, birthplace and park grounds.
Whether it was a bus load of students arriving for a daily tour during the school year or hundreds of visitors flooding the museum gift shop on a special occasion, Hinkhouse and her staff greeted everyone with a smile and a friendly greeting.
“I never thought about it as work because I enjoyed my job so much,” Hinkhouse said, noting she wasn’t the only employee to stay on the job for multiple decades. “Most of people stayed because it is such an excellent place to work.”
Because Hinkhouse and her colleagues spent much of their time directing visitors around the complex and answering many questions about Herbert Hoover’s life, we thought it would be appropriate to share some details of Hinkhouse’s career as a Hoover Museum employee with some trivia on West Branch’s most famous resident.
We’ll post the answers to 10 fun questions at the end of this story.
When she wasn’t working at the Hoover Museum and Library, Hinkhouse found time over the years to visit all but four of the Presidential Libraries now open.
Now that she’s retired, she hopes to someday visit the libraries for Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Question 1: How many presidents since Hoover have opened presidential libraries?
In the course of her travels, Hinkhouse also visited the Hoover Dam, which began construction 1931 and took five years to complete. The Colorado River feeds into the dam, which stands 726 feet tall and is 1,244 feet long.
Question 2: What is the nearest town to the dam?
Pam and her husband, Glenn, moved to a home in West Branch 6 years ago after spending 44 years on the family farm outside of town. Hoover, of course, was born in a two-room cottage in West Branch and moved to Oregon at age 9 after he was orphaned.
Question 3: In how many countries did Herbert and Lou Henry establish a home in during their marriage?
Pam and Glenn raised a daughter on their West Branch farm, and today they have two grandchildren to enjoy in retirement.
Question 4: How many children and grandchildren did Herbert and Lou Henry have?
The Hinkhouses celebrated their 50th anniversary in September.
Question 5: How many years were the Hoovers married?
As a member of the Hoover staff, Pam Hinkhouse served under six directors: Tom Thalken, Robert Wood, John Fawcett, Richard Norton Smith, Tim Walch and Tom Schwartz.
Before he became president, Hoover served as Secretary of Commerce under two presidents.
Question 6: Can you name those presidents?
President Hoover and the First Lady had many dogs in the White House, and most of them were gifts.
Some didn’t work out and were placed elsewhere (too timid, too aggressive, too loud), and some died or disappeared after their arrival.
Among the mix were a Collie, Fox Terrier, Belgian police dog and three Irish wolfhounds. The Hoover Library and Museum was home to a popular cat for nearly two decades.
Question 7: What was that cat’s name, and who built him a replica house to live in?
After graduating from the University of Iowa with a degree in social work and a double major in sociology, Hinkhouse worked one fulltime job before joining the staff at the Hoover Library and Museum on Oct. 6, 1975.
She started as an archives technician and worked there for four months before shifting to clerk duties at the museum’s shop.
“I always worked,” Hinkhouse said. “I started babysitting for money at age 10, and always had after-school jobs through high school and college. I enjoyed working.”
Herbert Hoover graduated from Stanford in 1895 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Geology, and Lou Henry was the first woman to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Geology from Stanford in 1898. They were married in 1899.
Question 8: Where was Herbert’s first job after college?
Hoover’s jobs changed over the years, and so did Pam’s duties with the Museum’s Gift Shop, where she eventually was promoted to manager.
“One of my jobs was buying everything in the retail shop,” Hinkhouse said. “It evolved into more of a business, because in the beginning we sold very few things. The National Archives were more strict in the early days, but that changed.”
While bookmarks and pencils have been popular with school children, collectors would purchase every piece of White House replica china the shop offered for sale, Hinkhouse said.
“We would be shipping orders out month after month,” Hinkhouse added.
One of the shop’s busiest days during Hinkhouse’s tenure occurred in 1992 when expansion was completed and the Hoover Presidential Library and Museum was rededicated.
“That was the craziest day. We opened our new museum shop that day, and created a satellite shop outside,” Hinkhouse said. “It was crazy, but tons of fun that day.”
Question 9: Which former president attended and spoke at the dedication?
Although she was just a child when the Herbert Hoover Library and Museum was dedicated on Aug. 10 in 1962, Pam Hinkhouse saw quite a few dignitaries and VIPs visit there over the years, including former First Ladies Mamie Eisenhower and Rosalyn Carter, Vice President Dan Quayle and wife Marilyn, and former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald R. Ford, as well as former President Jimmy Carter.
Carter spoke at Hancher Auditorium for a Hoover-related event.
She even met a pair of White House residents, Julie Nixon Eisenhower and Stephen Ford, when they came to town.
And former Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes always made a big impression when he brought his entire team to visit the library whenever they came to Iowa to play the Hawkeyes.
A year before she started working there, however, two former world leaders were scheduled to attend the 100th celebration of Hoover’s birth in 1974 but cancelled.
Question 10: Who were they?
Hinkhouse has many fond memories of the numerous exhibits and events that took place at the library and museum over the years, and credits the “39 Men” exhibition under director Richard Norton Smith for “putting us back on the map” with the public.
“He contacted every site with a connection to each president and got a personal item from every one of them,” she said. “At that time, we learned that the Smithsonian had not even done that, and it was exciting.”
One of her favorite parts of the museum is the Belgian relief area, which displays the flour sacks and lace decorated in Hoover’s honor for his life-saving efforts in food relief around the world.
Almost every visitor, Hinkhouse insists, says at the end of their tour that they had “no idea” that Herbert Hoover accomplished so much in his life.
“Most people have no idea of the amazing man he was and the amazing things he did. Or what an amazing woman his wife was,” she added.
As Richard Norton Smith pointed out at the library’s rededication, Hoover’s public service spanned 50 years and was much broader than his four years in office. If you need a refresher, perhaps it’s time to visit the library and museum again. Tell them Pam Hinkhouse sent you.
Answers
1: Hoover was the first, and there now are 13 presidential libraries up and running. The Obama Center is still under construction and a Trump Library has not been established yet.
2: The dam is on the boarder of Nevada and Arizona and located near Boulder City, Nev., which also has a Hoover Dam Museum.
3: Four countries. The Hoovers lived in Australia, China and London as well as Washington, D.C. and Palo Alto, California. After Lou Henry’s death in 1944, Herbert moved to New York and spent his remaining years in an apartment at the Waldorf-Astoria.
4: The Hoovers had two boys, Herbert Charles Hoover and Allan Henry Hoover, and they each married and had 3 children.
5: Herbert and Lou Henry were married 44 years. She died about a month before their 45th anniversary.
6: Hoover served as Secretary of Commerce under Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. He later served on the Hoover Commission under Truman and Eisenhower.
7: Longtime West Branch resident Floyd Christensen, who also worked for the Hoover Library, built a home that sat outside the museum for the cat. “The cat found us,” Pam said. “We called it Bert, and he came as an adult, and he had a good long life.”
8: Unable to find a job as a surveyor, Hoover worked for a gold mine near Nevada City, California, pushing ore carts. He later landed an office job in San Francisco that led to a job evaluating mines for purchase.
9: Former President Ronald Reagan was on hand to unveil the $6.5 million renovation and expansion of the library and museum.
10. The king of Belgium and Richard Nixon were set to attend the Aug. 10th event, but Nixon resigned his office on Aug. 8th. Nixon, however, visited West Branch in 1965.
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