ALICE MCLERRAN

1933 - 2019

McLERRAN--Alice E. Alice Enderton McLerran passed away peacefully in the early morning of Thursday, November 7, 2019 at University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, following a progressive neurological illness during the preceding five years. She was 86 years old. She is well known as the author of many books for young readers, notably "Roxaboxen" and "The Mountain that Loved a Bird", which have been translated and published in numerous countries, and frequently adapted as plays or musicals. Alice was born June 24, 1933 in West Point, NY. Because her father was a colonel in the U.S. Army, she and her three siblings lived in many states (Hawaii, New York, Texas, Oregon, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Kansas) during the next 12 years, in Germany following the end of WWII, and in Quito, Ecuador (where Col. Enderton served as military attache at the US Embassy) in the early 1950s. She had three children (Stephen, David, Rachel) during her first marriage in 1953-1960. She earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from UC Berkeley in 1969, following a year of archaeological field work in Ecuador (accompanied by all three children!). After a few years at SUNY Cortland (New York), teaching introductory Anthropology, she entered a postdoctoral program at Harvard School of Public Health, and earned an M.A. in Psychiatric Epidemiology. While living in Brookline, MA, she met Larry McLerran, a postdoc in theoretical physics at MIT, and they were married within a few months. Over the next five decades, Alice and Larry lived in a series of US cities (Menlo Park, CA, Seattle, WA, Batavia, IL, Minneapolis, MN, Bellport, NY, and finally Seattle again) as Larry's physics career progressed and he moved on to increasingly interesting positions at institutions such as Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Washington. They also traveled frequently throughout Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Alice was an active, charming, curious, socially gregarious partner with Larry during these travels, and made hundreds of friends. Many of these friendships were sustained and periodically renewed as the decades went by, and the friends fondly and vividly remember Alice years later. Her first book, "The Mountain that Loved a Bird", was conceived during a camping trip to the Ohanapecosh River in Mt. Rainier National Park (Washington). It tells a story that is sad but ultimately uplifting, and can be interpreted, applied, or appreciated in many different contexts. Her later book "Roxaboxen" is based on the experiences of Alice's mother (Marian) and her sisters and friends in Yuma, AZ in the early 1900s, and poignantly captures the wonder and lasting effects of children's imaginations. Thousands of readers around the world have sent messages over the years to express their love of these stories (as well as her other books). Many have described how they (or their children) built "their own Roxaboxens". Larry and Alice bought a vacation house (known as the "dacha", or "grandchild trap") in Sunriver, OR in the 1980s. It was intended to provide an incentive and venue for their far-flung family members to periodically reunite and have fun together -- and continues to serve that purpose today. Love of family, and desire for reunions, were constant guiding forces throughout Alice's life. Alice is fondly remembered by her devoted husband Larry, her children/ grandchildren/ great-grand- children, her older sister Ann and younger brother Donald, and her large circle of "favorite cousins". Her love of life and adventurous spirit live on in these relatives, in the hundreds of friends she made during her travels, and the thousands of appreciative readers of her many books. Much more detail and anecdotes about Alice's life can be found on Larry's website (www.larrymclerran.com/ alice/), and the slideshow prepared for her 80th birthday celebration in June 2013 (http://alicemclerran.us/ Alice_80th_bday/index2.htm).