Deana Fowler

Deana Rees Fowler passed away after a long illness on November 23, 2021, at the age of 83. Born in 1938 in Cumberland, MD to the late Dr. David and Mildred Rees, she is survived by a son, David; a daughter, Meighan, a granddaughter, Sage; a sister, Jane R. Schwartz, and brother-in-law, Richard Schwartz, living in Katy, Texas; a brother, David T. Rees, of Massachusetts; and a niece, Korin J. Rees, in Colorado Springs. Deana called the Boston area home for over twenty years; La Jolla, California for two years; Worcester, Massachusetts for ten years, and chose to finally settle in Maine.

Though a talented artist and fearless, free-spirited adventurer, Deana was also a tireless academic and established her own academic-book indexing business. Having earned a BS in Zoology from West Virginia University, she continued her studies in biochemistry, endocrinology, genetics, histology, microbiology, and plant pathology at Boston University, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Maine. Her biomedical research career spanned over twenty years, working at the MIT Biology Department, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and the Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA. Additionally, she studied Art and Art History at the Worcester Museum School.

Her incredible intellectual curiosity covered myriad topics, while her irrepressible sense of humor wielded acerbic barbs--describing her ex-husband: "Well, he was good with puppets." For those with inflated self-worth: "Pomposity is pathognomonic for Second Rate." And "When hitchhiking, you don't have to worry about the truckers that much. It's the family men in station wagons who are the most trouble."

She was relentless in her pursuit of knowledge and beauty, developing a deep interest in post-war Russian films and illuminated Renaissance manuscripts.

Her lifelong zest for doing is best exemplified by her, in her eighth decade, rock climbing with her granddaughter.

Her lifelong friend, physicist Ward Halverson, said this about Deana: "the most poignant memories that I have are from phone conversations on all sorts of subjects, from Kurt Vonnegut's books (she introduced me to my fellow Hoosier in Cat's Cradle) to her apparently extensive collection of Spanish manuscripts and parchments."

Finally, Deana's own invocation:

"Grant me the grace to dance the days when time is music."