Margaret C. Funkhouser

September 9, 1930 - June 10, 2025 On June 10, 2025, Margaret Crissman Funkhouser, age 94, passed away, surrounded by family and loved ones.
Born Sept 9, 1930, in Pittsburgh, she was the eldest daughter of Lyall and Katherine Crissman. Bright at birth. All that was left to mold was character, and since the biggest transformation of her father's life had been a 'son-of-a-preacher's scholarship' to Gettysburg College, he was as keen on education as on their Lutheran brand of self-effacing pragmatism.
At 12, Peggy could change a tire. At 16, she balanced his books, and with the second best grades at Mt. Lebanon High, he drove her clear across Pennsylvania's new turnpike to get a 'peek' at Wellesley College. Four years later, she graduated with honors and wound up at Princeton working for Gallup, a job whose chief requirement was to politely pretend not to notice Einstein on his daily rounds. But however 'modern' her early trajectory, it all ended on a storied 'date' with Bob Funkhouser that not only clipped their wings, but plopped them both back in Pittsburgh with job, kids and mortgage.
Not for the last time, though, it also left them in a perfect house -- on a dead-end street that backed everyone onto a Boy Scout reservation. Everyone had kids. So the job of child rearing was as easy as opening the screen door and letting the odors of Dr. Gilmore's grill remind everyone when it was time to come home. Add dream vacations to Hyannisport and Aspen and it was fairy-tale.
But all that ended in 1970, when Bob was offered a job to run the West Coast Office of BBDO. No one wanted to go! But after touring 60 houses from Palos Verdes to Pasadena, Peggy struck gold again when a realtor met her a mile up Mandeville Canyon. Answering the door was one of the Doublemint Twins, and when they went to sign papers at Brentwood's Country Mart, they stood in line behind Gregory Peck.
From the beginning, all systems were 'go.' Most notably for Bob, who not only 'traded up' to run Carnation's advertising, but with it, locked down a membership at the Los Angeles Country Club and near-permanent berths at every major 'pro-am' west of the Rockies. By any standard, it was a 'lucky' life. But Peggy was never as comfortable with privilege as Bob, and, if anything, it only drove her to 'give back' more.
First in Pittsburgh, where she served as President of their Junior League and Wellesley Club. Then at Los Angeles' CORO, where she made lifelong friends with David and Brenda Abel. With Sally Trott she founded Performing Tree, and on a dare that could only have come from David, she founded the Los Angeles Educational Partnership (LAEP), which just celebrated their 40th anniversary last year.
In between were countless boards and consultancies. Among them, Public Education Network, Project Grad, LA36, LA's BEST, KCET and the Cotsen and Gates Foundations. Standout co-directors
Virgil Roberts, Rod Hamilton, David Abel, Steve Lavine and Lloyd Cotsen. Standout co-workers
Judy Johnson, Jane Patterson and Andy Dunau. Ask any of them to describe her and their answers weren't just uniform. Few were more than two or three degrees outside the ranges her doting father had aimed at all along.
Tireless, selfless and never happier when the limelight fell to others. She was incapable of malice, and not once did anyone ever hear her complain. Her compass only pointed north, and amidst the grind and chaos of L.A. Unified, it was true enough to point the way for countless others.
At her second retirement, Virgil called her "the Rosa Parks of L.A. education.' Roger Adams mused that she was 'practically perfect. The Mary Poppins of L.A.'s downtown civic set.'
Among her survivors are children Lise, Kristen and Bob, Jr., son-in-law, Kent Pierce and daughter-in-law, Angelika; grandchildren Niko and Greta Funkhouser; Nell, Luke and Ricki Pierce; and great-grandson Nino.
To us, she'll only continue being what she's always been – 'the voice in our heads' – and the only one whose examples will ever come to mind when doing something hard. Or really, really fine.