Marian Frances Lacrampe Cortesi, 1930-2018
Marian died today, Sunday December 2, in her 88th year and one day short of her 46th wedding anniversary. She died in the house she loved, as she wished to do. She had no pain; she simply became unresponsive for a few hours and then stopped breathing.
Warmest thanks to everyone who responded to this blog. Marian was touched and grateful for your visits, your emails, and for the beautiful and thoughtful cards she received through these last months.
Here's a quick bio for those who met Marian only later in life.
Born and raised in Oakland CA, she graduated from Cal with a degree in Social Welfare and a teaching certificate. She quickly found that she hated elementary school teaching (she would often recall how much she hated it and how bad she was at it). Via her brother Emile, she got a job doing mechanical drafting, at which she excelled; but soon a suggestion from a friend led her to apply to IBM, where she found her true vocation as a programmer. For over 30 years she worked for IBM at offices in San Francisco, Honolulu, Palo Alto and London.
At IBM she met David, and the two introverted nerds quickly bonded and were married in 1972. Together they traveled extensively in North America in RVs and by car. After retirement, they took long tours in New Zealand, Australia, England, France, Italy, Germany and the Nordic countries. Also together they closely followed Stanford Women's Basketball, attending all home games and many away games.
After retiring Marian applied her computer skills to building elaborate, info-rich websites, first at the Stanford Health Library, and when that was taken away, for the SWBB fan club -- where her last post was made only a month before she died.
You can view an 8-minute slide show of pictures from Marian's life at this URL:
https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Marian-history/i-BjS3ShR/0/2725be5b/1920/Marian-1920.mp4
No service is planned. Following a plan she had set up many years ago, Marian's ashes will be scattered at sea by the Neptune Society.
Comments (14)
David, Jean, and everyone who loved Marian - We are glad her passing was peaceful and admire her grace and courage, and share a great sense of loss. David, we are so glad you were by her side supporting her in her choices. We believe she will rest in peace. Love, Jessea and Darlene
We are so sorry to hear this news. Marion will certainly be missed at Stanford . She was so giving if her time and talent beside bring a grand person. To Dave, our sincere sympathy and love, Arlene and Clara
I'm sorry to hear of Marian's death, before we had a chance to beat Baylor! I greatly admired Marian's skills and choices in how to direct her energy. I will miss her. My best to Dave, Harriet
Dear Dave, I am so saddened by this news. Marian’s intelligence, wit, and smile will be with me for a very long time. What a loss, Dave. My heart goes to you. Su Schaffer
Oh, Dave. I'm so sorry you have lost your beloved Marian. She was very talented and so thorough in her coverage of our team on the Fast Break Club website. I already miss her contributions. It took awhile for her to accept me into the *club", and I was honored when she did. Take good care Dave. Much love to you. André (and Carly, too!)
Dear Dave, I read this as I sit in the Davenport Hotel in Spokane with our Stanford team. I know how much Marian loved supporting our team. I will miss Marian and I will miss seeing her across the bench at our games. Our team and staff sends our love, support and comfort to you.
Dear Dave, What a loss to you and to all who knew her. I cherish the fact that I had a brief opportunity to say hello to both of you at the Idaho game this year. And how marvelous that Marion was able to attend games this fall. You knew this was coming, but it came too soon. Marion was a wonderful person, who enriched everyone she touched.
Dave, June and I are very saddened by this news. We knew it was coming - but not this soon. She accepted her prognosis with such grace. We were touched by the slideshow. Our hearts go out to you.
Dave, we are so sorry to hear of Marian's death. Our thoughts go to you and we send you heartfelt condolences. Love Sophie and Michel
Dear David, Thank you for the photos. I appreciated so much just seeing the whole of Marian's life. We send love to you and for Marian. We'll talk later, but we will still plan to come see you if it stills works for you. xo, Joanne and family
My heart and my deep condolence are with you Dave, and with everyone who loved Marian so much. I feel lucky to have known Marian, and to have witnessed her bright, spunky spirit! It always seemed to me that Marian filled her whole life with exploration, friendship, and devotion to things that she truly cared about. I remember thinking, "I want to be as full of life as Marian when I'm 80!" Her spark was so evident and so wonderful. She will be deeply missed and lovingly remembered.
Dear Dave, all of us at Canopy are sending our love to you and our family. Marian gave so much love to us all. Maika summed up what we feel: "I loved reading the brief biography Dave wrote, and seeing all the photos of Marian throughout her life—you can really see her spunky spirit shining through in all of them! It always seemed to me that Marian filled her life with curiosity, adventure, and friendship, enjoying every minute she could. I feel lucky to have known her. Her bright smile will be deeply missed." Indeed, we all feel very lucky to have known her.
We will all miss her in The Community Health Resource Center at PAMF - a wonderful volunteer and human being! Blessings to you Dave!
Gloria and I very sorry to learn this. I was surprised to learn in reading this how old she was; she certainly looked younger to me. Here is a photo from a Tasso St street party quite awhile ago. I hope it's not suppressed by this web site https://www.flickr.com/photos/thane/38122952/in/album-840683/ Thane and Gloria