Eleanor Visser

Eleanor Visser

Jan. 3, 1938 – Feb. 27, 2014

Eleanor was born in San Francisco, the elder daughter of Orris and Eleanor Olsen. She grew up in Glenwood in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where her parents had moved after World War II. She was the last graduate of Glenwood's one room school, attended Holy Cross High School, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University in 1958 with a degree in biology. Throughout her life she attributed her profound love of the natural world to her childhood in the mountains.

Eleanor married J. Hugh Visser, M.D., in June 1959. The two left immediately for Edinburgh, Scotland, where Eleanor worked at the University of Edinburgh while Hugh spent a year at the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital. They moved back to San Francisco where Eleanor gave birth to their first three daughters, Nano, Granya, and Maeve. After Hugh completed a residency at Kaiser Hospital the couple moved with their three children under three to spend more than a year in Trujillo, Peru, working for Project Hope.

Returning to San Francisco, Eleanor devoted herself to motherhood, giving birth to five more children: Maura, Sean, Briana, Deirdre, and Brendan. After Brendan started school, Eleanor's natural teaching ability and love of science brought her to the California Academy of Sciences. She took on multiple roles over twenty-five years; she was an active docent and teacher trainer, and later a DNA research assistant in the Osher Lab. Eleanor was a tireless advocate for science education, judging science fairs and taking up the cause of ensuring that evolution was presented accurately and well in textbooks.

By modeling the pursuit of her own passion for science and love of gardening, Eleanor taught her children to pursue their interests with courage and enthusiasm—to notice the spores on the underside of a fern leaf, to turn over a sow bug to see if it is pregnant, to read voraciously, to appreciate each other, and to marvel at the natural wonders of this earth.

Eleanor loved to travel and fearlessly welcomed adventure. Her early sojourns in Scotland and Peru remained salient experiences throughout her life, complemented by family trips across the US with eight children and a dog in a VW bus, as well as longer adventures in Europe, Africa, and a trip late in life to the Galápagos Islands.

Energetic, patient, unflaggingly positive, and generous, she readily made a place for every visitor at the dinner table, and left her children a legacy of creativity, integrity and responsibility for the environment.

Her engaged life was shortened by the slow onset of Alzheimer's disease, which took her from her loving family on February 27. She is survived by her husband of almost 55 years, Hugh Visser; the children mentioned above; and their families: Ken, Aislinn, and Gavin; Bruce, Emma, Eilís, Brenna, Aidan, and Declan; Bruce, Tristan, and Anya; Teddy; Kate, Grace, and Nora; Angela and Chloe; Carmen, Sofía and Eloísa; as well as her sister Marie Chapman and brother Chris Olsen; and many nieces and nephews. We are grateful for the loving care she received at Irene Swindells Center and Alma Via San Francisco.

Friends and family are invited to a rosary at 12:15PM on Saturday, March 8 at St. Brendan's Parish Church, 29 Rockaway, San Francisco. A memorial mass will follow at 1:00PM. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer's Association, Sempervirens Fund or your favorite conservation organization.