Mary Rickard

July 22, 1962 - January 9, 2023

On January 9, Mary Kathryn Rickard passed away unexpectedly near her home in Fall City, Washington.

Mary was born in Waterloo, Iowa on July 22, 1962 to Jack and Kathryn Leavell. After graduating from University of Northern Iowa, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where she met her future husband, Graham Rickard. After a courtship that spanned a few years and many cities, they wed in London in January, 1998. Throughout this time they played countless games of Scrabble, adventured throughout Europe and Northern Africa, and enjoyed many meals and pints of ale in cozy pubs and B&Bs as they tramped to many small villages across the British Isles.

Their family soon included two beautiful children, Alex and Zoë, and they moved back to the United States, briefly in Detroit and then Alameda and eventually Piedmont in the Bay Area. There, they built a life rich with friends and experiences. They biked, skied, camped, ate, and played more Scrabble and other board games. Mary loved knitting, sewing, The New York Times crossword, Bruce Springsteen, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, the Giants, and the Warriors.

Two years ago, as empty nesters, Mary and Graham moved to Fall City, Washington to begin their next adventure. Mary loved the beauty, space, verdant landscape, and small-town community that the Pacific Northwest offers. She took great joy in mowing the lawn, planning her summer garden, cultivating fruit trees, keeping an eye on the local bear, and helping Graham with his beekeeping. Mary passed with a heart over-flowing with love for her family and friends and a soul filled with life’s greatest experiences. She was a wonderful wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend, with a tremendous sense of loyalty and a delightful sense of humor. She is survived by her mother, husband, two children, two brothers, and all their families. While she will be missed forever, she will live on in all of us.

Mary was a great believer in the power of public service and community. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Habitat for Humanity, one of Mary’s favorite organizations.

“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you . . . I could walk in my garden forever.”

Alfred Lord Tennyson