Maryhill Gleason

1916 - 2021

Maryhill Gleason (Née Flynt, Lorman)
105 years old
Resident of Sunnyvale, CA
Maryhill Gleason (Née Flynt, Lorman) of Sunnyvale, California passed away peacefully on December 16, 2021 at the age of 105 (and six months as Maryhill would say!).
Maryhill was born July 4, 1916 in Brent Georgia (a suburb of Forsyth) to Durward Hill Flynt and Mary Lillian Evans. The family moved to Colorado Springs in 1919 traveling across the United States in an open touring car and in 1921 they moved to Tucson. She attended the University of Arizona and her first job was as a reporter for the Tucson Daily Citizen and later moved to San Francisco as West Coast Promotion Manager for Macmillan Publishing. Maryhill's work life was varied, challenging, and unique for a single woman then a single mother in the 1940's and 1950's. World War II was a time of varied activities and included a stint at CBS writing for Far Eastern News, a move to Bechtel Corporation and their Marin Shipyard in Sausalito, and a transfer to Bechtel-Price Callahan for the Army Corp of Engineers' Canol Pipeline Project laying the first pipeline in the Arctic region for the US war effort. She first went to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory in Canada then lived in a quonset hut in Fairbanks Alaska and rode on the Alcan Highway before it was paved and it was still a military road.
She returned to San Francisco to the office of the President of Bechtel as aide to his Chief Engineer. Late in World War II she joined the American Red Cross Overseas Program and was assigned to the Panama Canal Zone to start an Enlisted Men's Club at Fort Clayton to help stem suicides there. In Panama she married Ellwood C. Lorman and they returned to the Los Angeles area where they started a family and she continued to work for Bechtel, divorced, and then worked for a group of trade publications. She was promoted and she and her children moved to San Francisco in 1956 to manage the Northern California office of the trade publications. She eventually moved to San Jose in 1960 and joined Peterson Engineering (which became part of Texas Instruments). Maryhill joined Lockheed in 1963 and spent 20 years working on the Polaris-Poseidon-Trident Fleet Ballistic Missiles program. She was the first woman sent to the submarine bases for missile buildup. Her last eight years at Lockheed were spent in the Advanced Program Office traveling regularly between Sunnyvale and the Navy Strategic Systems Project Office in Washington D.C. where she worked to support three different Admirals and assisted in analysis and writing Congressional presentations. In 1966 she married Lawrence Douglas Gleason, an Aeronautical Engineer at Lockheed and she was widowed in 1990.
Maryhill loved to travel visiting over 40 countries and when she retired she continued to travel but her favorite activities were stamp collecting and genealogy. She found that as many generations of her family had lived in the United States prior to the Revolutionary War as had lived here when she was born. Her ancestors in Georgia received land in a lottery for Revolutionary soldiers. Her ancestors originally came over on the first boatload to Jamestown and her direct linage also led to six signers of the Magna Carta. She held local and national offices in the National League of American Pen Women, National Management Association, and Women's Overseas Service League and was recognized by the American Red Cross Overseas Association for her work during WWII. She was also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the San Jose Advertising Club, and a charter member of the Women in Military Service for America and Women's National History Museums.
She is survived by her daughter Laura Lorman of Sunnyvale, son Durward "Woody" Lorman his wife Norma Leavitt, grandson Jonathan of Sunnyvale, and their son-in-law John White of Washington DC; stepson Kevin Gleason and his wife Debbi of Fremont and grandson Steven Gleason and his wife Roxanne Tiburolobo of Sonoma; and foster son who joined the family in 1952 Allen McCulloch and his wife Sandra of Gilroy; their sons who Maryhill considered as her grandsons Scott McCulloch and his wife Christy and their sons Conner and Tyler of Morgan Hill and Daniel McCulloch and his wife Angie and their daughters Kaylin and Leah of San Jose. Predeceased were Maryhill's two husbands Ellwood Lorman and Lawrence Gleason, her sister Margaret "Peter" Steiner and husband Ralph Steiner, their two children Jacqueline and Raphael and his wife Gayle, and most recently her beloved granddaughter Jessica Lorman White (Woody and Norma's daughter).
Maryhill lived a long, full, exciting, and loving life.
Private inurnment has been at Skylawn Memorial Park in San Mateo and a Celebration of Life will be held at her home in the future. If you would like to be notified when a date is set please contact Laura Lorman at 408-738-2780 or gingermoggies@yahoo.com. In lieu of flowers Maryhill and her family appreciate support for either The Special Olympics Northern California: www.sonc.org (or send to 3580 Buskirk Avenue, #340, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523) or donations in support of Wilms cancer research, contributions can be made in memory of Maryhill's granddaughter Jessica Lorman White at Pablove Foundation give.pablove.org/jessica (or send to 6607 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90028).


View the online memorial for Maryhill Gleason (Née Flynt, Lorman)