Frances M. Meade - Scottsdale, Arizona
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Author: Biography Supplied by Coordinator
Released 26 October 2003
Frances Meade
Mrs. Meade is a former teacher and Principal of the Riyadh International
Community School (now the Saudi American School). She also taught English to the
daughters of King Khaled bin Abdalaziz when he was Crown Prince, and was a
teacher at the Parents Cooperative School in Jeddah. She has been a Protocol
Assistant to four American Ambassadors to Saudi Arabia, dealing with royal
protocol on official visits. Mrs. Meade was Director of Education at Al Manahil
Center in Riyadh, and also served as a consultant to Riyadh Schools for the
English program and on boarding school placement in Europe and the United States
for both Saudi Arabians and American expatriates.
The Meade’s arrived in Riyadh in the 1960s when there were only 130
Westerners living in the city, and moved into their first home in the city’s
Malaz district. They were to reside in the Kingdom for 33 years. During that
time, Mrs. Meade and her engineer husband, Richard, traveled the length and
breadth of the Arabian Peninsula, from the mountain town of Tabuk, on the
Jordanian border, to the Yemeni seaport of Aden, on the Indian Ocean.
Mrs. Meade learned the Saudi dialect and formed enduring friendships with
Saudis whom she met through professional and social pursuits. She also formed a
serious interest and appreciation for Saudi traditional arts and began
collecting the indigenous jewelry of the Bedouins, the nomadic people whose
cultural roots are sunk deep in Arabia’s history. She enjoyed trips to the
women’s souk (market) of the towns and cities of Arabia, negotiating for the
authentic work that had been brought into the souk by desert Bedouins, and
recalls the desert Bedouin women as "colorful, exciting people”. Her vast
collection of Bedouin jewelry, consisting of sterling silver and semiprecious
stones, including turquoise, coral, garnet and onyx, plus headdresses, nose
rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces and finger rings, has been exhibited at
the Bead Museum in Glendale, Arizona. She laments the fact that today the number
of Bedouin people living a nomadic life is on a sharp decline and that most of
the Bedouin jewelers are gone, their knowledge and skills with them.
Mrs. Meade earned an AB degree from Mount Holyoke College. Since returning to
the United States, she has been a consultant to Global Dynamics, conducting
cross-cultural seminars for Americans going to Saudi Arabia. She has also
participated in numerous speaking engagements under museum auspices and with
private groups. Her book, Honey and Onions, was published in Saudi Arabia
in 1996.
Read more articles on the Memory
Lane Tour and visit the Memory Lane Tour Galleries.
Purchase Honey and Onions by Frances Meade.