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Margery Feldman Senders ’42

October 27, 2020, in Portland, just shy of her 101st birthday.

Marge could remember her early days in Portland where she watched her father crank the car to get it started. Years later, she watched men walk on the moon. She attended Lincoln High before coming to Reed, which she attended for one year. While at Reed, she was skiing at Timberline and met Bruce Senders of Albany, Oregon. They married a week after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

She and Bruce moved to Seattle to open a branch office of the family business, Mount Hood Soap Company. Her sons Steven and Geoffrey were born in Seattle, and in 1955, the family returned to the Portland area. When the boys got older, Marge and Bruce traveled the globe, their favorite destination being Portofino, Italy. In the summer, they spent time in their cabin cruiser taking in the San Juan Islands and Victoria, B.C. After her husband’s accidental death, Marge continued to travel with her younger sister. On a trip through Cambodia and Vietnam, the tour guide referred to the two white-haired ladies as “the mountain goats.”

Marge volunteered at St. Vincent Hospital, the Assistance League, the Portland Youth Philharmonic, the Portland Art Museum, and William Temple House Thrift Store. She was a lifetime member of the Multnomah Athletic Club, where she made many friends. A swimmer and tennis player in her youth, she became a track walker in her later years. She believed that physical fitness and a good diet would extend her life, though she did enjoy a Scotch in the evening. Well into her 90s, Marge continued to attend exercise classes five days a week and was an inspiration to others in the class. When she had rotator cuff surgery (twice), she made sure the fabric on her sling matched her purse. Marge’s life went full circle; she died just one block away from where she was born. 

Appeared in Reed magazine: June 2021

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