Lucy Cowdin Maisel

March 9, 1918 - June 17, 2019

Lucy Cowdin Maisel was born in Springfield, Illinois on March 9, 1918. After graduating from public high school in Springfield, she won a scholarship to Mills College in Oakland, California. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, she received her B.A. degree from Mills in 1938, and won an exchange fellowship to the University of Paris. Returning to the United States at the outbreak of World War II, she worked as a personnel officer in defense and war agencies in Washington, D.C., where she met Sherman J. Maisel.

They had both been chosen to be among the first group of interns at the National Institute for Public Affairs, a program designed to attract recent college graduates to careers in government service. In 1942, she married Sherman Maisel, then an officer in the U.S. Army, and moved with him to several posts in the western states.

In 1948, when her husband joined the faculty of the University of California, the Maisels moved to Berkeley, where they lived for the next 18 years. During this time, she was active on the board of the Mills College Alumnae Association, in the University Section Club, School Resource Volunteers, and various community organizations.

After a seven-year sojourn in Washington, D.C, where her husband served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board, the Maisels moved to San Francisco, where she volunteered at the International Diplomacy Council, now part of the Institute of International Education.

All her life, Lucy sang in choral groups wherever she was living, varying from informal madrigal groups to symphony choruses. She was an original member of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and sang with it for many years.

She is survived by a son, Lawrence Maisel and his wife Susan Grant of London, a daughter Margaret (Peggy) Maisel and her husband Ira Horowitz of Miami and Boston, and grandchildren Nicholas Maisel, his wife Kate Hooper, and Elena Horowitz. If you wish to send a donation in Lucy’s name please consider a contribution to the Lucy Cowdin Maisel scholarship fund at Mills College, or to a charity of your choice.