Marilyn Emily Gillette

Marilyn Emily Schlemmer and her identical twin sister Dorothy were born on May 8, 1930, to Roy E. Schlemmer and Irma Rahn Schlemmer. She was raised and graduated high school in Mount Prospect, Illinois, in Chicago’s northwest suburbs. She received her bachelor’s degree at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, and a master’s at the University of Illinois. Her passions at this time were drama — she directed a student production of South Pacific — and teaching; she never forgot the middle-school students she had as a student teacher in Iowa.

In 1959, while vacationing in Colorado, Marilyn met Walter Gillette, of New Braunfels, Texas, and they were married on June 29, 1960. For a time they both taught in the Corpus Christi school system, and their first child was born in that city. Not long afterward, Walter obtained a position on the faculty at Ferris Institute (now Ferris State University) in Big Rapids, where he remained for his entire career. Although Marilyn devoted herself to her home and children during their formative years, as they grew older she returned to substitute teaching at both the high school and college levels.

On December 29, 1975, as the family was driving home from a shopping trip in Grand Rapids on the new U.S. 131 freeway, Walter stopped the car to help a motorist who had gone off the road on the opposite shoulder. The driver of a tractor-trailer, mistaking the disabled vehicle’s taillights for those of a vehicle in transit, struck the vehicle, its occupants, and Walter, killing him instantly.

By the following year, Marilyn had accepted a faculty position at Ferris, and in 1977, she was awarded Teacher of the Year in a vote of the entire student body. From then until her retirement in 1993, she continued teaching while becoming increasingly involved in the formation and activities of the college faculty Senate, eventually filling an important leadership role. Her first love, though, was always teaching, and her papers included many letters of thanks and appreciation from the students whose lives she touched.

In 2003 she joined the community at Covenant Living (then Covenant Village), where she was an active participant in many activities, particularly the Befrienders Ministry, an outreach organization that suited her perfectly. It was always her joy to be of service to anyone in need of a friendly smile or a helpful introduction.

In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by her parents; her sister Dorothy (Schlemmer) Anderson; her cousin Barbara McKellar; and her dear friend Bernard dePrimo. Surviving are her son John Cooper of Portland, Oregon, and his wife Jo Brown; her son Stephan Gillette, of Scottville, and his wife Markeen; grandchildren Christopher, Peter, Elizabeth, Daniel, Isaac, and Skye Gillette, and their families, including several great-grandchildren.

Memorial services are at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 22, at St. John’s United Church of Christ, 1934 Bridge Street NW, Grand Rapids.