Marilyn Moore Reynolds, a longtime resident of Kensington and Berkeley, died December 12, 2019, at the Immanuel Lutheran Communities in Kalispell, Montana following a two-year struggle with ALS. She was 84.
She was born in Kalispell to Dr. Thomas B. Moore and Miriam Wayman Moore and attended Flathead County High School where she was a member of the National Honor Society. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Montana in 1957 with a B.S. degree in chemistry and was a member of Delta Gamma sorority.
Growing up, Marilyn enjoyed hiking in Glacier Park with the Girl Scouts and swimming in Flathead Lake during summers spent at her family’s cabin and cherry orchard on the East Lake Shore. She and her sister Diane were a dancing duo and competed in the 1951 Horace Heidt Talent Show.
Marilyn married Leonard F. Reynolds, a native of Missoula and a Naval Academy graduate, in 1958. As a test pilot for the US Air Force, Pete was killed in a flight accident in 1964 at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California. After a brief respite in Kalispell, Marilyn moved to Berkeley with her two young children, Tom and Laura, and then to Kensington in 1965 (252 Columbia Avenue).
She joined Chevron Research in Richmond as a research chemist, followed by work as a computer programmer for John Blume & Associates in San Francisco, as well as stints at Lawrence Berkeley Lab and the University of California Field Station in Richmond. She then had a 25-year career with the Metropolitan Planning Commission, a transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the San Francisco Bay Area. After retiring from MTC, Marilyn completed a UC Master Gardeners course in plant science and horticulture and volunteered in Golden Gate Park and with the Exploratorium Science Museum in San Francisco.
Marilyn married Vince Bacon in 1984. Vince passed away in 1998, and she married Bruce Harris in 2001, spending winters in Berkeley (90 Alamo Ave.) and summers in Kalispell. Marilyn and Bruce moved permanently to Kalispell in 2016. Marilyn put her horticultural expertise to good use volunteering both in Glacier Park working with native plants and in the gardens of the Conrad Mansion in Kalispell. Bruce passed away on Sept. 15.
Marilyn is survived by her son Thomas Reynolds of Livermore, daughter Laura Reynolds of Kalispell, grandson Lucas Reynolds of Portland, OR, sister Suzanne Moore Crocker of Palo Alto, nephew Patrick Crocker of Hillsborough, and niece Kathleen Crocker Storey of Burlingame.
A joint service celebrating the lives of both Bruce and Marilyn is planned for Saturday, Feb. 1, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 Lawson Road, Kensington, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
