Mary Kathleen Archbold

Born on January 8, 1941, her father, Milfred Holler said she looked like a skinned rabbit. Her mother, Nellie Moulder Holler did not agree. Endlessly curious, joyous, she flitted through life. She graduated from Michigan State University then took course work at Colorado State and the Univ. of Michigan. Travel was always a passion; visiting all 50 states and 35 countries was a good start.

She met her spouse, Joseph Archbold, in an airport in Evreux, France after laying eyes on him in an airport in Rota, Spain. They raised two daughters, Hilary, an accomplished scientist and educator, who gave them their wonderful granddaughter, Octavia, and daughter, Jennifer, with two sons, Devon and Anthony.

Along the way Mary taught biology and chemistry, taking maximum joy in peering through a microscope at pond water creatures. After moving to New Mexico, she embarked on a career in real estate. Helping wonderful people find wonderful homes was always a victory. She did not know she was in the initial stages of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) when she and Joe traveled to India and later to England and Ireland.

A life 80 years in length is truly a gift. And in that gift package was tent camping, cooking recipes from the New York Times, bird watching, being in Paris on Bastille Day, eating lots of mac ‘n cheese and lobster, listening to Waylon Jennings, Mozart, and Johnny Cash—and on and on.

She is survived by Joe, her daughters and grandchildren, her sister, Barbara Mueller of Albuquerque, and her brother, David Holler of Newaygo, MI.