Teddy bear expert dies at age 84

Margaret Fox Mandel, one of the world’s foremost authorities on teddy bears and dolls, died Dec. 23 after a battle with cancer. She was 84.

Mandel’s three books on teddy bears were the standard reference among collectors. Daughter Margot Mandel said her mother fielded calls from around the world asking about collectible items and their worth.

“Even when she was 80, she treated (teddy bears) with childlike reverence,” Margaret Mandel’s son Rick Mandel said. “It was interesting for somebody who was very sharp intellectually. She parlayed her affection for dolls and teddy bears into a hobby and became world-renowned for her expertise.”

From a young age, Margaret Mandel’s mother, Henrietta, would give her daugh- Mandel ter dolls and make her matching outfits, Margot Mandel said.

During the 1970s, the family was living in a home in California that frequently leaked. One day, while cleaning the toy closet, Margaret Mandel found that some of her dolls had been damaged. Extremely upset, she took them to a doll hospital, which did a poor job of repairing them.

“That just really empowered my mom to become educated and really understand what’s what,” Margot Mandel said.

Margaret Mandel’s family described her as brilliant, a walking encyclopedia who could have been a doctor if her parents had been able to afford medical school. She was also artistic, and her work was displayed as the centerpiece of the Denver Art Museum’s “Open for Design” community challenge in 2012, according to her family.

She studied chemistry at the University of Colorado. Margaret Mandel is survived by her husband of more than 60 years, Dick, and four children. A service is planned for March.