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Obituaries

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In Memoriam Archive

Marcus Thomas ’95

March 2, 2019, in Oaxaca, Mexico, of a heart attack.

Born and raised in Texas, Marc received a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Reed. He served in the military, worked for the forest service, and taught math in Portland public schools.

He met his life partner, Betty Durham ’90, while they were both teaching HyperCard—a software application and development kit for Apple Macintosh computers—in the Talented and Gifted program at Portland Public Schools. For a year, they lived in the foothills of the Himalayas, in Mussoorie, India, where they engaged with Tibetan refugees and Marc taught math at the Tibetan Homes School as a volunteer. They also traveled to New York and Paris, and walked the Camino de Santiago from Oporto, Portugal, to Santiago, Spain.

As an activist, Marc was ardently involved in recalling the death penalty and was involved with Amnesty International and in supporting Tibetan refugees in America and abroad. At the Oregon Humane Society he played Santa Paws. In the fall of 2017, he and Betty moved to Oaxaca de Juarez, Oaxaca, Mexico, having spent part of each of the prior five years engaging in cultural activities and building a network of close friends there. His passing was marked by a Buddhist ceremony performed in the Spanish language—which would have pleased him. He is survived by Betty; his brother, Robert Thomas; and his stepdaughter, Ann Lehto.

Appeared in Reed magazine: September 2019