Marion Gordon Phillips

PHILLIPS, Marion Gordon

Marion Phillips, longtime Sacramento teacher, passed away peacefully on January 4, 2008, after a short illness. Marion was born at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco to Charles B. and Cornelia Currey Phillips and was raised on the family ranch near Dixon, along with her sisters Alice Phillips Gessler and Edith Phillips Mace, and her brother John Robert Phillips.

Marion attended her first seven years of school in the one-room Currey School, riding to class in a pony cart or on horseback. Marion graduated from Dixon High School and went on to the University of California at Berkeley where she majored in math and where she and her two sisters joined Phi Mu sorority. After graduating from Cal, she attended College of the Pacific to complete a teaching credential in math.

Marion taught math and girls' P.E. for five years at Dixon High School, where she had the opportunity to teach her favorite subject, geometry, to her younger brother. During World War II, Marion joined the USO, serving for five years in Southern California and Northern Washington. On her return to Northern California, Marion taught math at the University of California at Davis for a semester, after which she returned to teaching high school math, beginning her thirty years at Sacramento High School. Marion held the position of Registrar at Sacramento High for ten years, and then again returned to teaching math until 1978, when she retired. Marion spent a memorable sabbatical year at the University of Hawaii in the 1950s. Marion was the Sacramento High School faculty advisor to the California Scholarship Federation club and helped other high school advisors establish new CSF clubs. She was also the American Field Service club advisor, a volunteer post she continued to hold in her early retirement years.

Marion maintained an interest in travel into her nineties, traveling with friends and family around the United States for classes, fun, and conventions, and to Canada, South America, Europe, the Holy Land, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Marion continued in her retirement years to work with her college sorority and teacher groups, Delta Kappa Gamma and California Retired Teachers, often acting as treasurer or editor for each of the groups. She was also active in her community, ushering at stage performances and at her church, teaching Sunday school, tutoring math students, participating in classes, and writing.

Marion is survived by her sister-in-law Charlene Wood Phillips of Dixon, her cousins Corinne Currey Troiani of Santa Cruz and Robert Currey of Dixon, her ten nieces and nephews, Sallie Lovitt, Jean Gessler Glenn, Sue Shoemaker, Peg Shasky, Charley Phillips, Jim Mace, John Phillips, Marion Kramer, Melissa Glide, and Scott Mace, grand- and great-grand-nieces and nephews, and many friends.

A memorial service for her family and friends will be held at the Southside Community Church in Sacramento on Saturday, June 14, at 1:00 p.m.