Hazel Shuttleworth was born on August 10, 1926 in Middleton, Michigan. She married Jay D. Meyer and had five children. She attended Michigan State College (now Michigan State University) from 1944 to 1948 and graduated with her bachelor’s degree in Social Work. While a student at Michigan State, she served as South Williams Hall president, was on the Student Council, was a member of Pi Alpha, and the Women’s Co-op League. Starting in 1945, she worked as a dining hall hostess and then in other food service positions at the women’s dorms on West Circle to pay for her room and board. She returned to MSC in 1950 as an assistant food supervisor in Williams Hall and then in Landon Hall. The rules governing female employees at the time forced her to resign and be rehired after her pregnancies. She became manager of Williams Hall in 1960 and was one of the first women to fight the forced resignation during pregnancy by obtaining a medical leave of absence for her fifth child. Meyer had an employee organize and type the handwritten recipes that had been used in the dorms since the 1930s. When she left MSU, she took copies of the recipes and used them in later jobs at a private college, a school district, and a nursing home.