Gloria Maria Buce passed away Friday, September 9, 2011 after a long battle with cancer.
She was born June 23, 1950 to Charles and Marta Petty in Seattle, Washington.
Gloria's father, Charles Petty, had served in the U.S. Army as a medic in World War II. While stationed in Italy he met Gloria's mother, Marta Ghilardi. They married after the war and moved to Seattle.
Though she was born in Seattle, Gloria's family soon moved. They lived in many places in Washington and Oregon while she was growing up.
The family moved to The Dalles, Oregon in 1965 where her father worked as a pharmacist for The Dalles Pharmacy. It was when they lived in The Dalles that she first met her future husband, Jack Buce, at a church youth group in the mid 1960's. Jack graduated from The Dalles High School in 1966, and Gloria graduated from TDHS in 1968.
Later, they met again while attending Oregon State University, and married June 13, 1970 in McDonald forest outside Corvallis, Oregon, on the day Jack graduated and was commissioned into the U.S. Navy. The couple moved to San Diego where Jack's ship was based. Later, Jack was transferred to the Navy base at Guantanamo, Cuba where they lived for two years. After leaving the Navy, Jack and Gloria came to Seattle in 1974 where her parents had returned.
Gloria completed her college degree at the University of Washington and entered the working world. Among her early jobs she worked as a sales clerk at Pacific Fabrics in Seattle where she met some lifelong friends. She worked at Pacific Printing Industries. The job that became her passion was with Peopleware, a software company. She worked variously as a technical support representative, trainer, and documentation editor. Over the years the company went through two acquisitions, emerging as Certain Software. Gloria did software training during approximately
ten of her twenty years with the company and traveled to most major cities in the U.S. and Canada. Many of her former students across the country have remained personal friends.
Gloria was preceded in death by her father, Charles, and is survived by her husband, Jack, her mother, Marta Petty of Seattle, and sister, Elena Guichard-Marchand of Vancouver, Washington, her two sisters-in-law, Diane and Susan Buce of The Dalles, niece Shanna Geigle, Salem, Ore., and nephew Scott Elwood, Hermiston, Ore. and their families.
A memorial service will be held Sept. 17, 2011, 11:00 a.m. at the North Seattle Alliance Church, 2150 North 122nd St., Seattle, Wash., 98133.