Margot Guis M.D.

Margot Guis, MD
Margaret "Margot" Stock Guis, born June 21, 1950, in Milwaukee, WI, died following a brief illness on June 25, 2024, in Sacramento, CA, surrounded by her family.
She is survived by husband Reardon West, MD; children Zoe West of Lodi, CA, and Evan West of San Francisco, CA; twin sister Amy Guis, her husband Marv Fenner, and their son Graham Fredenburg of Sacramento, CA; nieces Lisa and Kathy Guis, her husband Andy Warner, and their boys William and Oliver, all of Berkeley, CA; and step-niece Ellen, her husband Jeff Gayton, and their children Kate and Jack of Ashland, OR. Preceding Margot in death were her parents Robert and Anne Guis (nee Morrissey) of Elm Grove, WI, and brother William Guis of Milwaukee, WI, then Medford, OR.
After earning her BS at Michigan State University in medical technology, Margot completed an internship in medical technology at Stanford-her first time living in California. She attended medical school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she graduated AOA, the medical honors society for top graduates.
Then followed residencies at UCSF in pediatrics and laboratory medicine and two years of research on the treatment of sickle cell anemia and red blood cell enzyme defects. She studied pathology at Valley Medical Center in Santa Clara and subsequently had fellowship training in surgical pathology at Stanford. She earned board certifications in pediatrics, pediatric hematology (laboratory), anatomic and clinical pathology. After short stints on the faculty at Children's Hospital in Oakland and UCSF, Margot rounded out her career as a staff pathologist at Kaiser-Santa Clara for twenty-plus years.
Reardon and Margot's paths crossed in their laboratory medicine training at UCSF when they shared an office. Their budding relationship was geographically interrupted early on by Reardon taking a fellowship in New York; a year of bicoastal romance ensued. They married in Palo Alto, CA, in 1984 and were together for forty-three years.
Her years-long involvement with the Girl Scouts played a key role in Margot's development, exposing her to camping, canoeing, and horseback riding. Scouting also helped instill in her an ethos of leadership, self-sacrifice, and putting the concerns of others above her own. As a teenager she taught horseback riding to children; when thrown from a horse she suffered a lumbar compression fracture, an injury she hid from her parents so she could continue teaching.
Even this painful experience did not diminish her lifelong love of all things equestrian. In the early 2000s Margot founded and for several years directed Creekside Stables, a riding school for young riders in Portola Valley. She partnered with longtime associate Jeanne Williams in 2008 to establish Sargent Equestrian Center in Lodi.
Margot and Reardon traveled widely in Europe and Asia while working and even more during retirement, especially enjoying southern France, Sicily, and many trips to Hawaii.
Margot loved gardening and landscape architecture and took full advantage of California's climate. Her fondness for animals led to an endless stream of dogs and cats and for a while too many guinea pigs.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers donations in Margot's name be made to Planned Parenthood.