Maureen Duryee

1947 - 2023

Maureen Elizabeth Duryee was born to Mary and Dan Duryee on December 12, 1947 in Everett, Washington.

Her childhood in North Everett was a happy one marked by bluebirds, campfire girls, listening to the radio, dancing, and watching American Bandstand on a black and white TV. She made lifelong friends in kindergarten at Whittier Elementary. Her pals participated in the freedom Maureen was afforded by busy parents who trusted her implicitly.

Family was sacrosanct and she had an especially close relationship with her father. She loved Lake Stevens in the summer, water skiing, and hosting sleepovers for her friends. She also enjoyed snow skiing at Stevens Pass.

Maureen tuned to KJR and KOL nonstop in the early sixties. She loved DJ Pat O'Day and his Fabulous Fifty and saved copies of "Seattle's Official Music Survey" and other early rock n' roll ephemera. In 1964, she drove her friends in her dad's convertible, the Hoover, to see The Beatles.

She kept journals and began writing letters, later working on the school yearbook. She even wrote a chatty gossip column about high school life for The Everett Herald. Maureen graduated from Everett High, class of '66.

At the University of Washington, she pledged Theta, the same sorority her mother had led 30 years earlier. While she started off in architecture, she quickly shifted to art history. On a trip to Europe, museums in Vienna filled with paintings impressed her. Architecture and art history enriched her life. But she became restless and left the U, moving to New York City to attend the Art Students League recommended by her Aunt Marjorie Duryee, an artist and photojournalist.

In the summer of 1969, she headed upstate and took art classes in Woodstock. Bob Dylan walked into one of her art classes, barefoot wearing a white suit, and silently examined their drawings. Around this time, she fell for astrology, identifying as a Sagittarius and triple fire sign. Shortly before the iconic music festival, she moved back to Seattle.

Returning to the U, she took interest in medieval church architecture like Romanesque carving and the beakhead forms sculpted on the outside of early churches, thanks to professor Constantine Cristofides. She studied Northwest Coastal Indian Art with professor Bill Holm. And like her mother before her, Maureen studied history with professor Giovanni Costigan. In a poetry seminar taught by poet Elizabeth Bishop, Maureen met Eric Dahl.

Soon after, Eric was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University in England. Maureen visited for Christmas in 1975 and stayed, renting an upstairs flat in Oxford. The next fall they married at a 12th century parish church Maureen had written a paper about at the U. The Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Iffley featured the Romanesque architecture she so admired.

They stayed in Oxford together for three years. Maureen worked at a branch of the Bodleian Library and made repeat visits to London for museums, theater, and cinema. She also spent time traveling to Scotland, Ireland, and France, studying painting at a school on the Scottish Isle of Mull. Living in Europe made a lasting impression.

The couple moved back to Seattle in Fall 1978. Maureen started working at Magus Books in the University District. They bought a house in Wallingford just before their son Gavin Dahl was born in 1981. They remained committed to co-parenting after their marriage ended in 1985.

Maureen adored Gavin and was an exceptionally loving and nurturing mom. She baked unforgettable birthday cakes and created unique Halloween costumes, giving Gavin the same freedom she experienced as a child.

In 1988, her sister "Mugsy" gave birth to Amanda, and Maureen began a close relationship with her niece.

Following the death of her father, Maureen moved with Gavin to Lord's Hill, Snohomish in 1990. Soon after she married David Campbell. He seemed to know the correct question to every answer on Jeopardy, but she could keep up with him in Scrabble.

Maureen devoted much of her time to Gavin, driving all over for baseball tournaments and waking up before dawn to deliver him to student government meetings at Snohomish High School. She wowed his friends with her cooking, inspired by Julia Child and The Joy of Cooking alike.

After the death of her Aunt Marjorie, Maureen took on responsibility for preserving her artistic legacy as well as fellow northwest artists Peter and Margaret Camfferman who started the Brackenwood Art Colony on Whidbey Island. She donated some of their artwork to Seattle Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, and Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds.

Her interest in northwest history led to support for the Everett Library Northwest Room, developing friendships with historian Margaret Riddle and Everett Herald history columnist Jack O'Donnell. She contributed to HistoryLink and the Women's Legacy Project. She also volunteered on the board of directors for the Evergreen Cemetery Association.

At Magus she managed the art, art history, and architecture sections. She was a book scout and trusted buyer at estate sales. In addition to her warm and friendly style, customers appreciated her window displays. Co-workers connected with her spirit. She worked at Magus for over 35 years, making many more lifelong friends along the way.

Maureen and Dave led a peaceful life together, enjoying more than three decades of companionship. Some of her favorite backyard pastimes were growing sweet peas in her garden, bird-watching, outsmarting deer and squirrels, and watering loyally.

A voracious reader, she dedicated her life to books, amassing a personal library of Penguin titles, pulp novels, centuries of literature, and coffee table books about art history and architecture. Maureen also collected postcards, with a particular focus on women reading.

She supported the postal service and kept an address book and calendar for sending birthday cards to countless loved ones. For his entire adult life, she sent newspaper clippings from The Seattle Times and Everett Herald to her son, who excitedly opened each package of carefully curated stories about film, music, baseball, nature, and the northwest.

A truly gifted letter writer, she remained an active penpal until the end. Recently she paid particular attention to her granddaughter Ember, about whom she proudly shared photos and updates. She kept people connected across great distances with pen and ink, later using her "stylish stylus" and phone to send texts and emails brimming with character.

Maureen spent over a decade managing a team of devoted caregivers for her mother, who the Everett Herald called "one of Everett's last great ladies." Mary lived in her home on Rucker Avenue until after her 100th birthday.

Maureen and distant relatives tracked the Duryee family tree twelve generations back to passengers on The Mayflower. She thought of herself as a photo-story teller. Her scrapbooks were works of art in their own right, including love letters sent by her parents during WWII, detailed records of globe-trotting adventures, and notable family history subjects.

Maureen transformed everything she touched. That meant people too. Friendships were central, but there were no strings attached. She believed people do evolve a bit over time if we remember to look, or at least we ought to shine a flashlight into the "filing cabinets" where we store memories of our life experiences.

All of us lucky enough to know Maureen cherished her. We miss her effervescence and so much more. She brightened up everything, and the world is darker without her.

Maureen died in her sleep at Providence Hospital in Everett, with her husband David and son Gavin holding her hands. She is survived by David, Gavin, his wife Katie, and their daughter Ember. She is also survived by her sister Margaret ("Mugsy") and niece Amanda.

In lieu of flowers, please hug who you love, write a letter to a distant friend or relative, donate to your favorite charity, and shop at a local independent bookstore.