Mary Elizabeth Brian

mary elizabeth bRIAN 1910 - 2009 Educator Emeritus Mary Elizabeth enjoyed a long life but for her family and friends it was still too short. Mary shortened her 100th trip around the Sun on October 27, 2009 and died peacefully following a life as a loving wife, an ideal mother, an educator emeritus and a generous benefactress for posterity by educating anyone interested in life. She loved life and hoped to repeat it 'time and again' and hoped to see 'the people she loved just as they were.' Mary was born in the town of Gunnison in Sanpete County in Utah. She was the daughter of Charlotte Johnson of the town of Norsehund (in the far north) and Augustus Villard of the town of du Villard Bonnot (high in the Alps). Mary married the love of her life, Dow Pace Brian, of the town of Loa in Wayne County (at Spring Creek). They lived Salt Lake City (at Oak Hills) and summered together in Mill Creek Canyon (east of Salt Lake at Porter Fork). Mary Elizabeth was the sainted mother of two children. They named their older son Dow Villard Brian and named the younger son Darrell K. Brian. Mary boarded and graduated from the Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant and later Westminster College in Salt Lake City and still later received a graduate degree at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Mary Elizabeth taught disabled children in their homes and Mary taught we learn the most from our losses and the best from those closest. Mary Elizabeth gave to and for posterity by encouraging and supporting the education of anyone willing to learn. More important to Mary than her own education was assisting in the education of others. She partnered with her husband for an education at Harvard University in Cambridge (MBA in Business Administration) and then assisted her eldest son to gain an education at Stanford University in Palo Alto (M.Sc. and PhD in Computer Science) and then helped her younger son to acquire graduate degrees at the University of California at Berkeley(L.L.B. and J.D. in Law). Mary Elizabeth was an Educator Emeritus and saved a lot of things for posterity and was well known to keep a lot of them in in her garage. One son invented and patented 'digital voicemail' in 1979 to 'set it free' for public use and the 'posterity of cyberspace' and her other son wrote a poem for the Mary Elizabeth Brian Trust for her birthday on March 16, 2009. (no copy © rights reserved personally for Mary Elizabeth Brian or family members) The Re coil Theory of Life After Death The real world is made, of time and of matter, And they say time can never, destroy the latter, And bangs may cause, opposing forces to react, And recoil to reverse time, with its matter intact, But don't think of life, as a roa d that's 'one way', For life's a round trip, and it's a much better way! For the source of a bang, needs no one to pray, Just give it some thanks, for the chances to play, For the chances to love, and to make others happy, And the chances to take losses, that set others free, For these chances we choose, may return and replay, And 'deja vu' and repeat, just like 'plays of the day'! Mary Elizabeth suggested the 'virtue of the recoil theory' may be to 'better encourage' people 'to give to others the very same choices that they themselves want' and 'not to take from others either by trick or by force' because both their 'noble times' and their 'times of wrong' may well repeat 'over and again and just like a pendulum on a clock!' And maybe solely by 'believing' in the 'Recoil Theory' you 'will make your life better' because you will want to 'create more good times because you know they will repeat' and 'you will not want to create bad times' because you will also believe 'they will repeat ..., and over and again just like that pendulum on that clock!' Mary also noted the Recoil Theory was in synch' with longstanding principles including 'karma' and 'the golden rule' and 'what goes around..., comes around'. Mary further noted the Recoil Theory helps the widows with 'new husbands' avoid the angst in 'anticipating heaven!' But then she also remarked 'it's of no help to those Vikings and Polygamists!'(i.e. on her husband's side of the family). Last but not least Mary Elizabeth liked the Theory because it 'costs no one either their time or their money!' Mary unconditionally loved and accepted all her grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and these include Jerry, Brad, Keith, Derek and Jennifer and all of their children including Jacqueline, Duncan, Calvin and Veronica. Many of Mary's friends and family predeceased her but she cherished the calls, visits and assistance regularly made by several of those among the younger generations over the many years that she aged. The family wishes to acknowledge the importance of your friendship and wants you to know that you became part of our family by assisting Mary Elizabeth during her times of need. Mary was devout and her husband was a missionary but their 'mixed marriage' was not well accepted in either of their churches at the time. Nevertheless Mary and her husband believed their love for each other was more important than their religious differences and they agreed before their marriage to avoid their churches for their funerals. Instead they hoped for their family and friends to either hold onto their money or to contribute to an institute of higher learning of their own choice. As requested by Mary she is buried beside her husband near Oak Hills at Sunset Lawn (of Larkin Mortuary). Private Memorials will celebrate and commemorate Mary Elizabeth's Life on a continuing basis at Sunset Lawn and in Mill Creek Canyon. To send or request any information (but no money please) regarding Mary Elizabeth (including her husband's connections to polygamy, O'Brian and Brian Boru) please call or fax the family at (415) (San Francisco) 440-7070 or email dobrian1125@gmail.com