Marian Adachi Kohn

1929 - 2014

Marian Adachi Kohn

Deeply cherished as wife, mother and grandmother, Marian Adachi Kohn died peacefully in her home surrounded by family on August 29, 2014, due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She was born March 1, 1929, in Honolulu, to Kurakichi and Betty Kikuyo Adachi, and is survived by her husband of 55 years, Alan; children Lizabeth Sawyer (Jeffrey), Nancy Kohn, Diane Heil (Benjamin), and Stephen Kohn (Leslie); and four grandchildren.

Marian graduated from Maryknoll High School in Honolulu and the University of Hawaii, where she then worked for several years as an entomology researcher and scientific illustrator, before marrying and moving to the mainland. In 1961, the family moved to Edmonds, where she was an active volunteer for the school district, preparing outdoor environmental lessons for elementary students. Over the years Marian also co-taught classes as a volunteer in the horticulture program at Edmonds Community College, volunteered at the University of Washington in botany, zoology and the Burke Museum, and for a year at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Since 1972 the family has resided in ShoreIine, where Marian became a more active gardener on her larger, nearly one-acre lot. She developed this into one of the finest gardens in Shoreline, with many rare and native plants, where each May up to 140 rhododendron plants are in bloom simultaneously, and where she hosted horticulture classes and visiting botanists and plant enthusiasts. She was widely known and especially appreciated in the local plant community for her generous gifts of plants and seeds to both individuals and public gardens. "Her garden was her resume;."

Donations in Marian's memory are invited to the Walt Bubelis Horticulture Scholarship at Edmonds Community College, or to one of the University of Washington Department of Biology student support funds.