Penelope L. Holden

Penelope L. HOLDEN (TEAL / ROOD) Of Seattle, WA and Burlington, VT, was born in New York City on June 5, 1928, to Edith H. Gillingham and Lansing C. Holden, Jr. She spent most of her childhood in New Canaan, Connecticut and attended Smith College, graduating with highest honors in French and English. Penny was an accomplished equestrian, tennis player, skier and sailor, modern dancer and hiker. Her marriage to John J. Teal Jr., a human ecologist, began with a honeymoon on skis across Spitzbergen, followed by two years in Norway working with the nomadic reindeer herding Sami. Moving to Vermont, the couple embarked on a project to domesticate the musk-ox to provide a new wool industry for indigenous peoples of the far north, involving many arctic expeditions. With a herd of muskoxen, they lived on Teal Farm in Huntington, where Penny bore four children, trained horses, worked part-time for landscape architect Dan Kiley, and obtained her pilot's license before moving with the family to Fairbanks, Alaska. With a Master's Degree in the Teaching of English as a Second Language, she taught Alaskan Inupiat and Yupik students. The family moved to Seattle in 1967. At the University of Washington, Penny obtained another Master's Degree in Public Health Administration, helped found the Aradia Clinic for women's health, worked as a health planner for Neighborhood Health Centers, helped found the Madrona Dance Studio, and was active in the feminist and peace movements. Outdoor pursuits were hiking (including a summit of Mt. Rainier), cross-country ski racing and time in her off-the-grid cabin on Lopez Island. John Teal died in 1982, as Penny was heading north to live in Juneau, Alaska to work for the Southeast Alaska Regional Native Health Corporation. She flew by bush plane to remote villages, supervising health aides and setting up clinics. Fascinated by the work of local healers and shamans, she left to study eastern religions. Her study at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco led to her becoming a yoga teacher for the next 26 years. In 1987 Penny and Gilman Rood, of Burlington, were married in Bali. Returning to Vermont, they shared 14 years of travel and theater performances together while Pennyco-founded the Burlington Yoga Studio and helped inspire the rapid growth of yoga in the region, training many new instructors. Having become a Buddhist, Penny celebrated her 70th birthday by riding horses in the remote Tibetan steppes. At 75, following Gil's death, she took a solo trip to India and Nepal for in-depth dharma study, visiting Tibetan monks she had sponsored. Penny then returned to Seattle, where she had a severe stroke. She moved to University House, gradually resuming her active life. Shortly after the celebration of her 80th birthday, Penny died in her sleep in the mountains of Wyoming. She is survived by her brother Lansing Holden; her children Nuna, Ptarmigan, John and Lansing Teal; and her grandchildren: John-Lansing and Annabel, Perrin and Quill, Antea and Sila, Charlie and Samantha. All are welcome to participate in her memorial service, to be held at 6 p.m. on August 4 at the Graham Center in the U of W Arboretum in Seattle.