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Mary Jackson Gibson ’39

A picture of Mary Jackson Gibson

Mary Jackson Gibson '39, April 23, 2008, in Phoenix, Arizona. Mary received a BA from Reed in political science. She met Lee W. Gibson ’39 in her first year at Reed; they married and moved to Texas in 1940, where Lee had a position with an oil company and Mary worked as a legal secretary. After living in New York, while Lee received a graduate degree in fluid mechanics from Cornell University, the couple returned to Texas. When Lee began his work as an independent consultant in oil, doing geological engineering studies in California, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah, the couple maintained a home base near Riverdale, California. Mary was secretary and bookkeeper for Lee's business, the Lee Gibson Oil Company. Caring for their six children drew Mary into the P.T.A. and the Woman's Civic Club. She was elected a life member of the Esperanto League of North America for her publicity efforts in the early ’50s on behalf of the international language movement. With her youngest daughter in high school, she took a secretarial position for a television studio in Fresno, and then spent 14 years as a child welfare worker with Fresno County, retiring in 1980. She was a member of the Fresno Unitarian Church for 55 years, enjoyed gardening and jelly making, and travels with Elderhostel. In 2001, she moved into a retirement center in Phoenix. Survivors include four daughters, two sons, nine grandchildren, and one-great granddaughter. Lee died in 1990.

Appeared in Reed magazine: November 2008