This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.
Charlotte Zietlow has died.
Zietlow, 91, a women’s rights pioneer, entrepreneur and the grande dame of Bloomington politics, rose to prominence in the early 1970s. She was elected to the Bloomington City Council in 1971, served as president in 1972 and was the first women to be elected county commissioner in 1980.
Born Oct. 21, 1934, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Zietlow remained involved in politics until her final days, advocating last week for the county to improve the current jail rather than to build a new one.
In 1980, she ousted three-term Republican incumbent Monroe County Commissioner Bill Hanna at a time when county government was controlled by the local GOP — and men.
“People were astonished that I won,” Zietlow said in 2019. “I was one of them; 1980 did not look like a good year for a woman or a Democrat to run.”
Throughout decades of public service, Zietlow has taken on numerous causes, from fighting to save the Monroe County courthouse to advocating on behalf of domestic violence survivors.
Zietlow met her late husband, Paul, in Minnesota and moved to Bloomington in 1964 from Ann Arbor, Michigan, where both had earned doctorate degrees at the University of Michigan, Paul in English literature, Charlotte in linguistics.
Paul Zietlow, who died in 2015, worked in Indiana University’s English department. Charlotte Zietlow turned down an IU lectureship and immersed herself in the life of their new community and raising their two young children, Rebecca and Nathan. From 1967 to 1968 Zietlow was an adjunct professor in Germanic linguistics at IU. In 1969, she became a visiting lecturer for English as a Second Language at Komensky University until 1970. She later served as adjunct professor at IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) from 1985 to 1987.
In 1973, Zietlow co-founded Goods Inc., which is now Goods for Cooks. The store was one of the first women-owned businesses in the city. The store’s location on the courthouse square helped jump-start the revitalization of Bloomington’s downtown.
She also served in positions with United Way of Monroe County, Planned Parenthood and Middle Way House.
As a county commissioner she was a driving force behind getting the Monroe County Courthouse restored rather than being razed to make way for a larger, modern county office building. She also helped get the current justice center built nearby. Public recognition for her efforts culminated in April 2012 with the renaming of one of the county’s most prominent buildings: the Charlotte T. Zietlow Justice Center.
Zietlow in 1988 also was one of the first three women who joined the local Rotary clubs and worked with Rotary’s international and youth programs, including Rotary Youth Exchange. The program allows high school students to spend a year abroad with a Rotary family. Zietlow’s daughter, Rebecca, spent a year in Brazil as part of the program. As the first hosts in Bloomington, Paul and Charlotte Zietlow invited a high school student from Australia into their home.
Zietlow also was an outspoken opponent of the incinerator that was proposed to burn local PCB-contaminated materials in the late 1980s and early ’90s, an idea that was eventually rejected, and helped with efforts to keep Lake Monroe as a dedicated source of local drinking water.
Zietlow ran for mayor in 1975 and 1995, but lost in the Democratic primaries. She also lost a general election as candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978.
She is survived by her children, Rebecca and Nathan, and three granddaughters. A grandson died in 2019.
Information about services was not immediately available.
Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Charlotte Zietlow, influential women’s rights pioneer, Bloomington entrepreneur, has died
Reporting by Boris Ladwig, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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