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Margaret Newton Sprinkle ’44

January 21, 2021, in Portland.

By the time she passed away at the age of 97, Maggie had lived well, laughed loud, and loved much. No one needed to be reminded that she was not only the smartest person in the room, but also the funniest.

A transfer student to Reed, Maggie spent her junior and senior years making great friends on campus and working on the social committee planning dances. One of her fondest memories was “the wonderful experience of writing my thesis [‘The Poetry of William Henry Davies’] with the guidance and inspiration of Prof. Lloyd Reynolds [art and English 1929–69].”

After Reed, her career took a few twists and turns. For four and a half years, she worked as a medical social worker at the University of Oregon Medical School with two other Reedies, Mary Jarvie Gourley ’46 and Marjorie Dimm McLean ’44. Maggie worked 25 years for Pacific Northwest Bell in Portland and Seattle. There she met and married Ralph Newton, an engineering manager with PNB. After retiring from the phone company, she worked as a real estate agent in Bellevue, Washington. Avid travelers, the couple toured the world and lived for five years on the Kona coast of Hawaii. They wintered for 19 years in Gold Canyon, Arizona, spending summers in Portland and Manzanita, Oregon. When Ralph died in 2008, Maggie moved back to Portland.

She was proud to have achieved being retired for more years than she worked. Maggie was previously married to D.E. Schwartz, by whom she had a son, Todd. He survives her, as do her three stepchildren, Nancy Chisholm, Susan Ortner, and Steve Newton.

Appeared in Reed magazine: September 2021

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