In Memoriam

Marie Cunningham Wordell, one of SOHO's founding members, passed away at her home in San Diego on September 15, 2008, after a lengthy battle with breast cancer.

Mrs. Wordell was born on May 22, 1940, in Evanston, Ill., and her family moved to San Diego in 1947. An art teacher for more than forty years, her paintings have been exhibited locally and nationally. Her art can be found in many homes and buildings throughout San Diego, including Rady Children's Hospital and Scripps Clinic. She was a past president of the San Diego Watercolor Society, past board member of the San Diego Art Institute, and was active with the Artists Guild of the San Diego Museum of Art, the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies, and the La Jolla Art Association.

It was at her first teaching job at Carlsbad Junior High School that she met another new teacher, the man who founded SOHO a few years later, Robert Miles Parker. Parker recalls, "When in 1969 I called the meeting to save the Sherman-Gilbert House, she was one of the first to arrive, even though few San Diegans wanted to come out on that rainy Sunday afternoon. As she was still teaching, she became by proclamation the group's first historian, in charge of the newsletter that became the award-winning magazine SOHO publishes today."

Marie loved throwing parties for her family and friends and will be remembered for her generosity, festive spirit, and love of art and people. She was an enthusiastic supporter of the newly formed SOHO, bringing in many of her friends as members. Our condolences go out to her family and friends.