Marianne V. Gordon Obituary (2021

Marianne Vogel Gordon was more than a pretty face. Born on January 28, 1930, to Joshua and Helen Vogel of Beaux Arts, Washington, Marianne (Mom) was the youngest of six children, the others being Peter, Barbara, Timothy, Ruth, and Caroline, all but one predeceasing her. Being the last ever held Mom back. From a young age, she brimmed with confidence in her own abilities. Never accepting culturally prescribed boundaries, Mom followed her heart and her head, embarking on journeys that were simultaneously educational, environmental, and artistic, and that only rarely corresponded with contemporary notions of what it is women should and could do. For instance, while enrolled at what was then Central Washington College of Education in the late 1940s, Mom took courses usually considered the purview of men, including one called "Industrial Arts" for which she designed and built a floor loom that is still in use today. After marrying Merle Thomas Gordon (d. Feb. 18, 2013), Mom expanded her horizons even as she wrangled a brood of five rambunctious children. She became a competitive sharpshooter, hunted mule deer and grouse alongside Dad, and in the 1960s coached the local junior rifle team. Mom hiked, she camped, she gardened, and she logged countless miles in our faithful Willys Jeep. She chopped firewood, gathered wild berries, painted and photographed much of the valleys scenery, read way too much Euell Gibbons, and most especially, fell in love with Kittitas County. So much so that by the 1980s, Mom was ready to go to bat for our beautiful forests and the creatures that inhabit them, joining with residents of the upper county to stop the logging that was then denuding our mountains and valleys at a frightening pace. As Mom explained to a reporter from the New York Times in 1989, "when theyre done cutting it all, there wont be a forest anymore." A thoughtful steward of the world around her, Mom supported the Kittitas Valley Audubon Society, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the Alpine Lakes Protection Society, the Sierra Club, and many other organizations devoted to the preservation of our wildlands and wildlife. It was an activism that informed Moms educational activities. Trained as a teacher, Mom remained a teacher; a tough one too. You know the kind: those who refuse to do their students thinking for them. "Look it up" being one of her favorite phrases. Moms children had front row seats in classrooms that ranged from mountain meadows to the kitchen table. We learned to identify rocks, birds, animals, and plants (some edible, some not); under her tutelage, we learned to think on our feet. But others were always welcome to join us: school friends who came along on camping trips that were more like field trips, search and rescue kids who Mom taught how not to get lost in the woods, out-of-town visitors who sought out Mom for birding advice, and more recently, her beloved neighbors at The Meadows who learned from her more about their local flora and fauna. Marianne Vogel Gordon our Mom never stopped. And then she did. Passing away on May 13, 2021, in Ellensburg, Washington, Mom is survived by five children (Carrie Gordon, Susan ODonovan, Donna Evans, Sarah Wauzynski, and Tom Gordon), their spouses, five grandchildren, numerous nieces and nephews, and some pretty special great grandchildren. Please join us in honoring our mother by honoring her causes: art, education, and environmentalism. A private burial will be followed later by a public memorial at a date to be announced.