Goodbye Cousin Marilyn
Of Montgomery Village, MD and a former NIST Fellow and Scientist Emeritus in the Sensor Science Division died Wednesday, October 30, 2013 following a brief illness. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, November 8 at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, 6601 Bradley Blvd., Bethesda, MD. Memorial gifts may be made to the church or the Montgomery Hospice.
Rest in Peace, Cousin Marilyn:
She's actually my Mom's Cousin, but she was always "Cousin Marilyn" to us. In addition to being a brilliant physicist, she researched and documented our Mom's side of the family history (in the time before the Internet when you actually had to go to the county records and look up stuff in books). My Dad was inspired to follow her lead and did research on his side of our Family.
Like my Dad, she had a love of photography. She traveled the world for her conferences and lectures. When that wasn't enough, she would go any other amazing and interesting place where there were good pictures to be captured. When we were kids there was always a slide show from an exotic place to see when Marilyn came to visit. It was like National Geographic coming to your living room.
This past April I was in DC and we had dinner. I was trying to explain to an acquaintance who Marilyn was and they said, "I get it! So if those guys on 'The Big Bang Theory' had a Grandmother, it would be her!" Exactly.
I knew Marilyn had taken pictures of my sister and cousins when she visited us over the years. Seems she was now scanning and restoring pictures and she made a book of them for my Mom. She showed it to me, and a few months later she sent me a copy along with the digital versions of the pictures. I've posted a few from time to time and they are amazing.
First Cousins in 1965 - L to R: Barbara Jacox Shoemaker, Kathy Jacox Cole, William Darron, Susan Darron Wierenga
Marilyn was really special to me. Because she lived in DC, we always had a reason to visit the Smithsonian. I saw my first computer at NIST where she worked (the punch card type.)
At her house there was a photo album with a picture of her shaking hands with Nixon in the White House. I asked her about it, and she said she wasn't too proud of it. I assume she meant meeting the man.
Marilyn meets Nixon, May 1973
At 84 she was still traveling and seeing things. Every Christmas the whole family would get the "Marilyn Letter". A single paged missive chronicling her annual exploits, written only as a physicist would. I definitely had her in mind when I started doing the same thing each Christmas. I can never top hers though.
I am going to miss her.
