We Remember
SMITH, Mary “Maribee”
—
1926 – 2024
Maribee was born Mary Beatrice to William and Katherine Allman in Vancouver in 1926. She was married to Geoffrey Oswald Smith. They immigrated to the United States in the early sixties.
While in Canada, she participated in an early CBC television cooking show — black and white of course. She became an American citizen in 1968, and later regained her Canadian citizenship to become a dual citizen.
Following a divorce, she returned to college at Berkeley, trained as a teacher, and began a career in education, teaching in the San Mateo Union High School District. She resided in Palo Alto for 50 years. Her career included some teaching ESL overseas in Korea and the U.A.E.
California sunshine inspired an interest in sports and the outdoors, and Maribee enjoyed riding her bike into her late 80’s. Travel was also an interest, especially to tropical locations for scuba diving and U/W photography.
Following retirement, Maribee volunteered in a local elementary school district. She had an intense interest in helping challenged students in the early grades obtain the skills necessary to go on to high school, graduate, and build successful futures. This lead to individual tutoring and also participating in a Diabetes Camp program for children.
She leaves special people in Canada — the Wood family in the Okanagan, the Holloway family and nephew Bill Allman in Vancouver. And leaves special people in the United States – in California, North Carolina, and Massachusetts, as well as South Korea.
At her request, no services are planned. Her ashes will be placed in the Pacific Ocean. All Canadian environmental regulations will be followed, as Maribee was passionate about protecting the environment.
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