Marie Visser Rawden

Marie was born in 1938 in Newark, New York, to Dutch parents; the Visser name carried the family’s roots from the Netherlands, a heritage she held quietly all her life.

Marie showed what kind of mind she had early on, graduating valedictorian of Newark High School with the Bausch & Lomb Science Award. At Syracuse University she studied combined sciences, graduated cum laude in the top ten percent of her class, and spent her summers in laboratories and fields — including working on a classified project for the U.S. government in 1959! (Yes, her family is also intrigued by this note on her resume…)

She had known Roger Rawden since their school days in Newark, and in 1960 they married. What followed was a marriage of sixty-six years and a love that everyone around them could see. They never fought. They always laughed. She was the yin to his yang, and together they showed others what true love and lifelong commitment look like.

She taught science early in her career and earned a Master of Education from Harvard University while pregnant with her first daughter, Debbie (which tells you something about both her stamina and her seriousness). She continued her love of learning into midlife, earning a Certificate in Technical Writing in 1991 simply because the work interested her.

She played tennis and jogged her way through the 1970s and ’80s. She loved cats, and she loved her grandchildren. She was kind-hearted, with a great sense of humor and a refusal to take herself too seriously, setting the tone for the family culture throughout the years.

During her life she sought out the company and the causes of women. She was a founding member of the Red Hat Society, the women’s social group that began in Fullerton, California, and she believed, plainly and firmly, in women’s rights and women’s community. She gave her time generously wherever she lived.

In their later years, she and Roger settled at the Atlantic Shores community in Virginia Beach, where she remained every bit as social and engaged as she had always been. And in a turn that surprised no one who knew her curiosity, the lifelong scientist became a creative writer, composing short stories late in life — more than a few of them with a scientific bent.

Marie leaves a well-lived life, filled with curiosity, warmth, and grace. To say she will be missed is an understatement. We love you and thank you for your unwavering support and adoration, Mom. We know you are watching over us and enjoying your new adventures.