Martha Leipziger-Pearce

Martha Leipziger-Pearce Martha Leipziger-Pearce died on Sunday, September 25, 2011. She was born February 25, 1921, in Abilene, Texas, to George Alfred and Bess Hall Pearce. After graduating from Abilene High School, she earned a B.F.A. in Art History at The University of Texas at Austin in 1942 and an M.A. in Sociology in 1948. Martha and Hugo Leipziger married in 1942. He taught Architecture and Planning at U.T. for 34 years. He was also a guest professor at Yale and The University of North Carolina. He had left Hitler's Germany in 1937 for Australia and come to the U.S. in 1939. When he became a citizen in 1944, he added Pearce to Leipziger. Martha and Hugo traveled extensively in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, Egypt, and Japan. Martha tried teaching and city planning briefly before finding her métier at jewelry design at age 45. She studied five years with John Lednicky at U.T.'s Art Department. In addition to completing about 1,000 commissions, she exhibited in museums in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, and Lubbock. High points were invitationals in Florida and in Wisconsin, where she was named one of "Fifty Best Jewelers in the U.S.", and a one-woman show at the Obispado Museum in Monterrey, Mexico. She was preceded in death by her husband Hugo in 1998, sister Miriam Pearce in 1985, and sister Nancy Pearce Helmbold in 2007. She is survived by her son Christopher of San Francisco, niece Alexandra Genetti and husband Ken of Sonoma County and their children Cerrithwen, Bronwen and husband Oran Egger and sons, and Gaelen, nephew Michael Aber of Mercer Island, Washington, cousins Clare Dyer of Austin, Susan Philips of Austin, Karen Baker of Houston and her siblings, and Carol Trudeau of Phoenix and her siblings. A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, October 1, at 4:00 p.m. in the Chapel at Westminster Manor, 4100 Jackson Avenue. Memorials may be made to The Martha Leipziger-Pearce Scholarship in Art Fund at U.T. Austin, the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, or a charity of your choice.