Rose-Marie Ullman

Rose-Marie Ullman
February 18, 1926 – February 19, 2022
Rose-Marie Ullman died in her sleep on February 19, the day after her 96th birthday.
She was born in Zurich, Switzerland. Her father, Jakob Hofmann, had come from many generations of Swiss who had lived in and around the village of Hombrechtikon. Her mother, Helen Parkinson, was a U.S. citizen but was raised in Ferney-Voltaire, France – where Rose-Marie also spent much of her early childhood.
Most of Rose-Marie's schooling was in Zurich.
In 1949, she moved "temporarily" to the U.S. – first to New York and then, in 1952, to San Francisco. She had intended to return to Switzerland but met her future husband, Fred Ullman, on a weekend Sierra Club backpacking trip to Mt. Lassen. They married in 1954.
Their two sons, Roger and Michael, were born in 1960 and 1962. Though both moved to the East Coast and established their families there, they remained very close.
A few years after her divorce in 1980, Rose-Marie joined the Peace Corps, spending a couple of years in the Dominican Republic – "among the best years of my life" she would say. Subsequently, she did a lot of travelling throughout the world – much in developing countries and mostly solo, toting the relevant "Lonely Planet" guide and phrase book, and always keeping a diary. She loved nature: trees, all outdoors, sun and rain, and of course mountains; but it was the garden surrounding her house in San Francisco, where she lived for over 50 years, that was her mainstay.
She had also become interested in the genealogy of her family and, after a dozen years of painstaking research, self-published "Of Tailors and Noblemen" in 2009. She was a voracious reader, loved opera and, in her later years, she reverted to her lifelong love of singing by joining a Senior choir. But her signature trait was her wide-ranging curiosity.
She will be remembered for her big smile and ready hospitality, no matter her slow physical deterioration at the end of her life.
Rose-Marie is survived by her sons Roger and Michael, Roger's wife Renata and Michael's fiancée Jana, her grandchildren Clemi, Oriana and Talia, and Clemi's mother Paola and brother Adrian.
Her last request was that her departure should not be mourned, but rather that her long and interesting life be celebrated.