Lillian Samuelson

Samuelson, Lillian Elizabeth Thompson NISKAYUNA Lillian Thompson Samuelson, 84, died peacefully at home on January 16, 2011 of multiple myeloma cancer. She was born in Boydton, Va., on July 13, 1926, the daughter of the late Ralph Washing-ton Thompson and Hallie Elizabeth Wootton Thompson. Lillian attended Boydton High School, graduating valedictorian at age 16 and then attended a special draftsmanship program at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. After completion of her training in about 1941 she worked near Baltimore, Md. as a draftsperson at the Glenn L. Martin Company on the Mars Flying Boat. She then returned to her studies at Virginia Tech where she met her future husband, Dale Samuelson, and they moved together to Chicago. After their marriage on November 1, 1947, she entered Illinois Institute of Technology where she graduated with a bachelor's of science in 1949. While in Chicago, Lillian worked as an engineer for Sears Roebuck Research Labs and Hotpoint Research Labs. She and her husband lived in several states before raising a family. For the past 49 years they have lived in the Capital District region, first in Pattersonville, then Guilderland, and most recently in Niskayuna at the Glen Eddy retirement community. For nearly 20 of those years she owned and operated "American Indian Treasures" on Western Avenue in Guilderland. She had a lifelong interest in Native Americans, traveling to most of the Indian reservations in the country and studying the huge variety of Native American cultures. She worked with the Indian Arts and Crafts Association for many years and held many offices, including the presidency. In 1984 she was selected by the organization as their member of the year. She was an avid birder and naturalist, traveling with her husband to approximately 80 different countries to meet people from other cultures and study birds. She saw nearly half of the 10,000 species of bird existing in the world. She was also fascinated by textiles and collected them from everywhere. She enjoyed sewing and embroidery and was a member of The American Sewing Guild and the Embroiderer's Guild of America, Inc., New York, Capital District chapter. She loved to garden, called herself an "old farmer" and always had several beautiful flower beds. She was an active member of the Schenectady Unitarian Church for the past 49 years. In the past several years she became very interested in genealogy and traced her family roots back about 350 years. She is survived by her husband of 63 years, Dale Samuelson; and their two children, Ralph Samuelson of Tokyo, Japan, and Ann Samuelson of Tucson, Ariz. Additionally, she is survived by three of her brothers, Johnnie Wooton Thompson of North Carolina, Robert Donald Thompson of Virginia and Ralph Edward Thompson of Colorado and their families and a niece. She was predeceased by her brothers George Howard Thompson and Harold Richard Thompson. She gave her body to the anatomical gift program at the Albany Medical Center. No memorial service is currently planned. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Nature Conservancy, Attn: Treasury (Web/Sustainer), 4245 N. Fairfax Dr., Ste. 100, Arlington, VA 22203, (800) 628-6860, or online at my.nature.org/donate/donate-online.html.