Alison Beatrix (saunders) Duxbury
Died
Alison Beatrix (Saunders) Duxbury
Born: November 6, 1932
Died: January 22, 2020
The Duxbury family mourns the end of a life well lived. Alison Beatrix (Saunders) Duxbury, gardener, teacher, community leader, intellect extraordinaire, wife, mother, grandmother, sister, daughter, fierce defender of everyone and everything in whom or which she believed, died peacefully in her sleep on the morning of January 22, 2020. Alison grew up in San Francisco with her younger sister Margery Hellmann and her parents Alison Jean and John B. de C.M. Saunders. She attended Lowell High School and the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned her BA in Botany and an MA in Marine Botany. She met Alyn Duxbury, her husband of 63 years and the love of her life, at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor research labs in the summer of 1955. They were married in San Francisco on December 20, 1956. After a stint working at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah during Alyn's military service, and after research positions in Louisiana and Texas, Alison and Alyn moved to New Haven Connecticut when Alyn accepted his first faculty position at Yale. Alison's first child, Andrew, was born in 1962 in New Haven. The young family moved to Seattle in 1964 when Alyn began his faculty position in the Oceanography Department at the University of Washington. Alison welcomed her second, Alison Jean (Jeannie), and third, Alec, children in 1967 and 1968 in Seattle. She began her teaching career at Seattle Central Community College in the fall of 1973. Alison taught oceanography, biology, and genetics until 1992. She co-authored with Alyn eight editions of the nationally recognized oceanography text book, An Introduction to the World's Oceans, and five editions of the smaller scale Fundamentals of Oceanography. Upon their early retirement in 1992, Alyn and Alison traveled the world and visited every continent but Antarctica. Alison was a voracious reader (especially of mystery novels) and her love for literature and the English language fueled her wit, her Puckish sense of humor, and her ability to slice through the foibles of life with a single well chosen word. Alison received a Seattle Angel Award in 1995 for her twenty years of work with Christmas Families through the University Congregational Church. She was an active and enthusiastic member of The League of Women Voters, served as a board member for two Seattle area private schools, and was awarded the Golden Acorn for her PTA work at Laurelhurst Elementary school in 1976. Alison was a loving and devoted grandmother to her two granddaughters, Isabel, born in 1999, and Iris, born in 2002.
Late in her life, Alison suffered from severe dementia.
She is survived by her husband, Alyn Crandall Duxbury, her children Andrew Saunders Duxbury, Alison Jean Duxbury (Peter Jaeger), Alec Ramsay Duxbury (Sally Coker Bergesen), her grandchildren Isabel Carol Duxbury and Iris Alison Duxbury, her brother in-law Donald Hellmann, her niece Jenny Hellmann, her nephews Tom Hellmann (& wife Arden) and Jack Hellmann (& wife Betsy), her great-nephews Max, Jake, Robbie, and Stuart Hellmann, and her great-niece Claire Hellmann.
Born: November 6, 1932
Died: January 22, 2020
The Duxbury family mourns the end of a life well lived. Alison Beatrix (Saunders) Duxbury, gardener, teacher, community leader, intellect extraordinaire, wife, mother, grandmother, sister, daughter, fierce defender of everyone and everything in whom or which she believed, died peacefully in her sleep on the morning of January 22, 2020. Alison grew up in San Francisco with her younger sister Margery Hellmann and her parents Alison Jean and John B. de C.M. Saunders. She attended Lowell High School and the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned her BA in Botany and an MA in Marine Botany. She met Alyn Duxbury, her husband of 63 years and the love of her life, at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor research labs in the summer of 1955. They were married in San Francisco on December 20, 1956. After a stint working at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah during Alyn's military service, and after research positions in Louisiana and Texas, Alison and Alyn moved to New Haven Connecticut when Alyn accepted his first faculty position at Yale. Alison's first child, Andrew, was born in 1962 in New Haven. The young family moved to Seattle in 1964 when Alyn began his faculty position in the Oceanography Department at the University of Washington. Alison welcomed her second, Alison Jean (Jeannie), and third, Alec, children in 1967 and 1968 in Seattle. She began her teaching career at Seattle Central Community College in the fall of 1973. Alison taught oceanography, biology, and genetics until 1992. She co-authored with Alyn eight editions of the nationally recognized oceanography text book, An Introduction to the World's Oceans, and five editions of the smaller scale Fundamentals of Oceanography. Upon their early retirement in 1992, Alyn and Alison traveled the world and visited every continent but Antarctica. Alison was a voracious reader (especially of mystery novels) and her love for literature and the English language fueled her wit, her Puckish sense of humor, and her ability to slice through the foibles of life with a single well chosen word. Alison received a Seattle Angel Award in 1995 for her twenty years of work with Christmas Families through the University Congregational Church. She was an active and enthusiastic member of The League of Women Voters, served as a board member for two Seattle area private schools, and was awarded the Golden Acorn for her PTA work at Laurelhurst Elementary school in 1976. Alison was a loving and devoted grandmother to her two granddaughters, Isabel, born in 1999, and Iris, born in 2002.
Late in her life, Alison suffered from severe dementia.
She is survived by her husband, Alyn Crandall Duxbury, her children Andrew Saunders Duxbury, Alison Jean Duxbury (Peter Jaeger), Alec Ramsay Duxbury (Sally Coker Bergesen), her grandchildren Isabel Carol Duxbury and Iris Alison Duxbury, her brother in-law Donald Hellmann, her niece Jenny Hellmann, her nephews Tom Hellmann (& wife Arden) and Jack Hellmann (& wife Betsy), her great-nephews Max, Jake, Robbie, and Stuart Hellmann, and her great-niece Claire Hellmann.
Source: Seattle Times
Published on: 16-02-2020