Obituary

Margaret Woodriff, 89

Margaret Ruby Oswald Woodriff, 89, passed away August 3, 1999, at the Madison Valley Manor in Ennis, Montana. She was born March 20, 1910 in Eads, the youngest of 12 children, to Caspar Oswald (an emigrant from Switzerland) and Emily (Fowlston) Oswald. She grew up on the family homestead near Kit Carson, attending a one-room school until the sixth grade, then traveling by horseback or buggy to finish junior high school several miles from the ranch. She completed high school (boarding locally) in Kit Carson, graduating as valedictorian. Margaret, with the help of a scholarship, went on to complete a bachelor=s degree at UC Boulder, despite family opposition and many difficulties. She was the only one of her siblings to complete either high school or college in a time and area of the country where getting an education, particularly for a woman, required great determination. While attending college, Margaret met Ray A. Woodriff, who she married August 1, 1938. They moved to Bozeman, Montana, in 1939 when Ray accepted a position with the Montana State University Chemistry Department. Margaret taught school for a few years, and then took a position as a secretary in the MSU Mechanical Engineering Department in 1952, retiring as head secretary after twenty years. Margaret was an expert with the English language, an avid reader and theater-goer who never stopped learning, and was a sharp, self-taught businesswoman. She often helped her husband, Ray, with his writing. She was an excellent cook and a life master bridge player who competed in and won numerous bridge tournaments. She enjoyed dancing with her husband, playing bridge at the Bozeman Senior Center, and entertaining friends and family at her home in her later years. Following the death of her husband, Ray, in 1983, she traveled all over the world with one or more of her children. Daniel, Lee, and Susan. She went para-sailing at the age of 72, learned to swim and snorkel at age 75 and continued into her 80's. Margaret was an avid horsewoman, going on an 11 day pack trip in the Bob Marshal Wilderness when she was in her 70's, with her sons and grandson, Michael.

Margaret is survived by her sons, Daniel Thomas Woodriff of Emigrant, Montana, and R. Lee Woodriff of Three Forks, Montana; daughter, Susan Woodriff-Baker of New York City, New York; and her grandson, Michael Lee Baker of Boston, Massachusetts. Many Oswald family cousins, nieces and nephews in this country and Switzerland, and many friends also survive.

She was preceded in death by her parents, siblings and husband. Her beloved last surviving sibling, Joseph Oswald, died in 1998.

Some rare people remind us of our heritage, as individuals or as a nation, as a result of their contact with their immigrant roots, their determination to get an education, their need to work hard and save for the future, and their lives spent understanding their children and all the options life presented to them. Margaret was such a person to her family and friends. We are losing the generation that spanned the time from the horse and buggy era to the computer age. The example of their strength, character and lives are their final gifts to us, and to the generations that follow.

A gathering of family and friends was held August 8 in the Dokken-Nelson Sunset Chapel in Bozeman, Montana. Memorials may be made to the Ray and Margaret Woodriff Memorial Scholarship Fund, MSU Foundation, P.O. Box 172750, Bozeman, MT 59717-2750.

Funeral arrangements were under the direction of Dokken-Nelson Funeral Services.