Mary Dempcy

July 2 1936 - August 29, 2015

After a brief battle with lymphatic cancer, former long time Bay Area resident Mary Dempcy passed away at Hospice House in Bend, Oregon, August 29. Dempcy was born July 2, 1936 in Spokane and grew up in Tacoma, Washington. She lived 40 years in the Bay Area, graduated from San Francisco State and received an MSW degree from Sacramento State in 1970. After working as a Psychiatric Social Worker for San Mateo County and Children’s Hospital, San Francisco, she and her husband-partner Rene Tihista developed the Stress Personalities Model for stress and conflict management. Dempcy co-authored “Stress Personalities, A Look Inside our Selves,” (also published in German and Spanish editions) “Dear Job Stressed: Answers for the Overworked, Overwrought and Overwhelmed,” numerous workbooks and manuals on stress and conflict. They traveled for more than twenty years throughout the U.S. and Canada training a wide variety of healthcare, high tech and other professionals how to manage stress and conflict. An avid backpacker, Dempcy spent many summers in the Sierras, backpacked in wildernesses all over the West, in the French Alps and Pyrenees and the Southern Alps in New Zealand. She is survived by husband Rene Tihista of Bend, Oregon, sons Curt Sorkin of Soquel, Scott Sorkin of San Jose and grandchildren Remy, Arielle and Micah Sorkin.