Historian devoted to Fort Lauderdale’s past

For two decades Merrilyn Rathbun devoted herself to learning, knowing and sharing all things Fort Lauderdale; its history, its founders, its leaders, its architecture, its anecdotes.

Rathbun, 80, died Saturday at Holy Cross Hospital. — six days shy of her 81st birthday.

“She was just this repository of information and knowledge about the city of Fort Lauderdale,” said City Commissioner Steve Glassman. “It seems impossible that someone could be the next Merrilyn.”

Rathbun was a researcher with the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society, first as an assistant from 1997 to 2000 and then as director of research services until 2017. She also served as a consultant to the city’s Historical Preservation Board for 17 years.

She had a phenomenal memory, well-honed research skills and was a gifted raconteur.

She even once read all of the early editions of the Fort Lauderdale News through the 1930s, making notes of relevant historical information along the way, said Susan Gillis, curator of the Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum.

Rathbun was born in Jamestown, N.Y. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Cornell University in 1960 and worked for one year as an art teacher in New York.

But her true love of Fort Lauderdale began in the 1940s during Christmas visits to her grandparents home in Rio Vista, said longtime friend Liz Garvin.

In the 1970s, Rathbun relocated to Fort Lauderdale to care for her aging grandparents, Garvin said.

“She seemed to me to be a solo and lonely figure,” Garvin said of the woman she befriended at Rio Vista Civic Association meetings decades ago. “Merrilyn lived a ... kind of hermit existence.”

Rathbun was never married and had no children. But she had a tiger-striped cat named Andy, which adopted her after a hurricane, and who she loved dearly, and a close circle of friends, Garvin said.

She was witty, quiet, unassuming and always upbeat with a love for Werthers caramels and anything chocolateand-orange flavored.

Rathbun was also an artist. Pencil drawings, print making and digital sketching were among her aptitudes. She often created illustrations to accompany her lectures at the Historical Society and gifted her friends with her artwork, Gillis said.

The opposite of a Luddite, Rathbun embraced modern technology in her work, became a whiz at Photoshop and other computer skills, friends said.

“She never stopped learning,” Garvin said. “She was always moving forward with her interests and her mind. She was vital and vibrant to the end.”

After suffering a fall in her Fort Lauderdale apartment in March 2017, Rathbun relocated to the Manor Pines Convalescent Center in Wilton Manors.

Rathbun is survived by a brother, Jerry, of Colebrook, Conn.

Plans for a memorial service, tentatively scheduled for Jan. 31, are in the works. Date: