MARJORIE MCCLURE PITTMAN

Marjorie Maude McClure Pittman, our adventurous mother, sister, and friend, had a stroke and died 17 days later in her home with her two daughters by her side. She leaves us a lifetime of memories of the things she loved-penning long letters, painstakingly tracking down family genealogy, and attending the theater, ballet, and art museums.

She cherished her children and friends, laughing with her brother on the phone, visiting his family in Deer Isle, ME, and traveling to Europe, Asia, Russia, and South and Central America.

Nature was an endless delight and she introduced each of her four children to the hiking trails of New England’s White Mountains and the granite basins of Yosemite. When we couldn’t join her, she backpacked solo and told us of hiking the narrow ridge of Clouds Rest, rafting the Colorado River, and standing on top of Machu Picchu.

A native of Fort Dodge, IA, Marjorie attended Radcliffe College in Cambridge, MA. At the end of her sophomore year, she married Joseph Garretson Pittman and they settled in Newton, MA. They had four children. After a divorce, she returned to Radcliffe, earned a degree in psychology, and relocated to Palo Alto, CA where she found friends and a position at Stanford Hospital as a technician in the nascent field of echocardiography. She was a member of the Unitarian Church in Palo Alto and continued to travel and backpack (hiking up the backside of Half Dome in her 50s) until the onset of dementia.

She is survived by her children Dirk Samuel Pittman of Morgan Hill, CA, Elisabeth Channing Griffin (Stephen Griffin) of Washington D.C., and Jennifer Rich Pittman of Soquel, CA; grandchild Michael Llewellyn Griffin of Champaign, IL; her brother Gordon Floyd McClure, his wife Judith Vivell of New York City; nieces Auden and Sarah McClure and nephew Damon McClure. She is predeceased by her parents, Dorothy Rich McClure and Samuel Merlin McClure; and her eldest son Joseph Garretson Pittman Jr. of Palo Alto. She will be buried in Oakland Cemetery in Fort Dodge.