Marjorie Mae Schweitzer

Died in Boulder on April 23, 2020, after a long decline and short illness. She was born March 10, 1928, in Coffeyville, Kansas, to Gladys Mary Ayers and Robert Henry Gardner. Marjorie grew up in Indiana outside Chicago, for which she held a lifelong fondness. She discovered anthropology at the end of her sophomore year at DePauw University, beginning a lifelong endeavor in the field, which combined her personal interest in individuals and in cultures as a whole. She transferred to the University of Colorado in Boulder to earn a BS in anthropology. She met her future husband, John Louis Schweitzer, in Tucson, Arizona, where both were in the Master of Arts program in Anthropology at the University of Arizona; they were married on May 17, 1953. Later they moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma, where John took a position teaching French at Oklahoma State University. She was a staunch feminist, bucking norms of her day—delaying having children until she was thirty, having her children by natural childbirth, then going back to school for her PhD (at OSU’s archrival the University of Oklahoma), which she completed at age fifty. She taught anthropology at Oklahoma State. She loved teaching, and her students loved her. She interviewed elders in the Otoe-Missouria and Ioway tribes and settler descendants in Perkins, Oklahoma, to document their life histories. In her words, “Their friendship was invaluable in many ways, not the least of which was simply being friends with them. My work honors them.” Her publications include the anthologies American Indian Grandmothers and Women in Anthropology (coedited with Maria Cattell), and her bookshelves were filled with ethnographies of peoples from all over the world. Marjorie was an early member of the Stillwater Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, helping in the building project, taking her turn for Sunday morning lectures, and teaching Sunday school. After she and John retired to Taos, New Mexico, they were involved in creating a UU group, were members of the Taos Archaeological Society, and were later members of the Boulder Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. Favorite interests were what she called her three Bs: bluegrass, baseball, and barns. She played piano, guitar, and fiddle and delighted in live performances, was a die-hard Cubs and Rockies fan, and photographed scenic barns in Oklahoma. She expressed her creativity in knitting, quiltmaking, cross stitch, and music. She often said music was “her salvation.” Marjorie was pre-deceased by her husband and her stepson, Kit Schweitzer. She is survived by her sister, Dorothy Goodnough, daughter Jehanne Schweitzer, son Robert Schweitzer, and son Roland Schweitzer, and his wife, Susan Woodard, and their son, Gaston Schweitzer, former daughter-in-law Ann Hedlund, and numerous nieces and nephews. As a longtime member of the American Anthropological Association, Marjorie would be pleased to have donations made to their Summer Internship Program in her memory. http://bit.ly/marj_anthro She was a charter member of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Donations in her name can go to https://americanindian.si.edu/. Condolences may be emailed to the family at remembering.marjorie@gmail.com.