Mary Allerton Matossian

MATOSSIAN

MARY ALLERTON MATOSSIAN

Historian Mary Allerton Kilbourne Matossian, a pioneer of Armenian, women's and interdisciplinary studies, passed away on her 93rd birthday, July 9, 2023, in Portola Valley, California.

Her groundbreaking 1962 study, The Impact of Soviet Policies in Armenia, stood virtually alone for two decades as the main Anglophone source on Soviet social reforms in Armenian life.

In popular culture, Mary Matossian was known for her 1982 interpretation of the Salem witch trials. Using historical climate data, she defended the theory (originally proposed by Linnda Caporael) that ergot-infected rye bread caused symptoms of mold poisoning, which the colonists attributed to witchcraft.

A native of Los Angeles, California, Mary was born July 9, 1930, to Norman J. Kilbourne, MD, a Yale honor graduate, and the former Katharine R. Hillix, a YWCA secretary.

At age seventeen, Mary received a scholarship to Stanford University, from which she graduated in 1951 magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. The following year, as a Rotary Fellow, she attended the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), then returned to Stanford, where she completed her PhD in History in 1955. She taught History at the University of Maryland for 31 years.

On July 9, 1954, Mary married Garo S. Matossian (1921â€"2004), an Armenian physician born in Aintab, Ottoman Turkey, whom she had met in Beirut. Mary Matossian is survived by her children Lou Ann, Michele, Viken (Mary), and Mark (Renée) Matossian and nine grandchildren. Services private. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts are suggested to the Sierra Club, Stanford University, or the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research.