Marian Cutler passed away at Brewster Health Center August 19, 2015. The daughter of Herbert and Ruth (Paul) Cornell, she was born September 25, 1917 in Blue Rapids, Kansas. She grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, attending Milwaukee Downer College and graduated from the University of Iowa. She married Hugh C. Cutler in 1940. They lived in St. Louis and outside San Francisco before moving to Topeka in 1998. Hugh died later that year.
Marian was an artist and teacher, as well as a support for her scientist husband in his fieldwork throughout the Southwest and Central and South America. She leaves behind her son Bill, his wife Elisabeth and granddaughter Antoinette, and the four children and their families of her late brother Paul W. Cornell, as well as many friends. The family gratefully acknowledges the staff, residents and volunteers of both Aldersgate Village and Brewster Place where she spent her last years in Topeka, and the staff of Kansas Hospice Care. A private interment ceremony at Blue Rapids, Kansas is planned for a later date.
In 1998, Milwaukee Downer College (now Lawrence University) requested alumni send in their life stories for a collection of biographies of the class of 1939. Marian submitted the following:
“I treasure the two years I spent at Downer. From there, I went to the University of Iowa to enroll in their course of Actuarial Science. I worked at National Guardian Life Insurance Company in Madison, Wisconsin as assistant actuary for a year before marrying Hugh Cutler, Ph.D., a research botanist. We went to Mexico for four months on a combined honeymoon and plant-collecting trip. After that, we roamed the Southwest, again collecting plants. We spent the summer of 1941 in Cuba at the Harvard Botanical Research Station. From there, Harvard sent us to South America, Hugh as a botanist and me as a photographer. Hugh was looking for primitive forms of corn, and I was taking photos to be used in Harvard’s botanical classes. We spent five years in Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia. When WWII came, Hugh was recruited by the U.S. War Department to work in Brazil. Rubber was in short supply and big demand. He covered seven states by jeep, horseback and Navy blimp, hunting for stands of wild rubber-yielding trees, then teaching the natives how to tap and process the latex to be sent to the U.S. While he was doing this, I was hired by the U. S. State department to organize and run a cultural institute in northern Brazil.
Back in the States after the war was over, our son, Bill, was born. Hugh was teaching at Harvard. He was offered a position in Chicago with the Museum of Natural History. We were happy to move back to the Midwest, After four years in Chicago, we moved to St. Louis, where Hugh worked at the Missouri Botanical Garden and taught at Washington University and I taught art at Mary Institute. During these years, we did a lot of boating, canoeing on the clear whitewater streams of Missouri and Arkansas, building two houseboats which we took on leisurely trips on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers as well as smaller streams. Canoeing was always a favorite pastime. While in Brazil, we bartered for a native mahogany canoe, 27 feet long carved out of one tree trunk, and spent several days floating down the Paraguay River. One summer, while Hugh was teaching at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and I was taking art classes, I learned to sail in their sailing club. We took Hugh’s paycheck and bought a Corsair, a French-built miniature ocean-racing sailboat. That was the first of our three sailboats. We took two weeks to two months at a time and sailed around Key West, out to the Bahamas, and to the Dry Tortugas. This went on for years, until the drug trades made it seem too dangerous to sail alone. We switched to the Great Lakes and sailed Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Georgian Bay. It was a great life. When Hugh retired, we moved to just outside of San Francisco, but came back for several years to sail the Great Lakes. We sold our last canoe just over a year ago when we moved to Topeka, where our son and family live. My husband died of heart failure a few months ago. It has really been a happy life. We saw all 50 states, Europe several times, much of South and Central America, and had some good hobbies, including painting and gold- and silver-smithing. It is hard to condense a lifetime into one page. I hope my classmates are well and as happy with their lives as I have been with mine.”
Marian spent her last years at a retirement community which offered her all the activities she enjoyed like painting, wood carving, pottery, card games, and puzzles, and made lots of new friends. She also took time to write down many stories from her adventurous life with Hugh, mostly from South America. She treasured her only granddaughter Antoinette and followed her growing-up years into adulthood and a Master’s degree with great interest. She loved theater and music and attended many of the flute recitals of her daughter-in-law and her ensemble. She will be greatly missed.
Marian was an artist and teacher, as well as a support for her scientist husband in his fieldwork throughout the Southwest and Central and South America. She leaves behind her son Bill, his wife Elisabeth and granddaughter Antoinette, and the four children and their families of her late brother Paul W. Cornell, as well as many friends. The family gratefully acknowledges the staff, residents and volunteers of both Aldersgate Village and Brewster Place where she spent her last years in Topeka, and the staff of Kansas Hospice Care. A private interment ceremony at Blue Rapids, Kansas is planned for a later date.
In 1998, Milwaukee Downer College (now Lawrence University) requested alumni send in their life stories for a collection of biographies of the class of 1939. Marian submitted the following:
“I treasure the two years I spent at Downer. From there, I went to the University of Iowa to enroll in their course of Actuarial Science. I worked at National Guardian Life Insurance Company in Madison, Wisconsin as assistant actuary for a year before marrying Hugh Cutler, Ph.D., a research botanist. We went to Mexico for four months on a combined honeymoon and plant-collecting trip. After that, we roamed the Southwest, again collecting plants. We spent the summer of 1941 in Cuba at the Harvard Botanical Research Station. From there, Harvard sent us to South America, Hugh as a botanist and me as a photographer. Hugh was looking for primitive forms of corn, and I was taking photos to be used in Harvard’s botanical classes. We spent five years in Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia. When WWII came, Hugh was recruited by the U.S. War Department to work in Brazil. Rubber was in short supply and big demand. He covered seven states by jeep, horseback and Navy blimp, hunting for stands of wild rubber-yielding trees, then teaching the natives how to tap and process the latex to be sent to the U.S. While he was doing this, I was hired by the U. S. State department to organize and run a cultural institute in northern Brazil.
Back in the States after the war was over, our son, Bill, was born. Hugh was teaching at Harvard. He was offered a position in Chicago with the Museum of Natural History. We were happy to move back to the Midwest, After four years in Chicago, we moved to St. Louis, where Hugh worked at the Missouri Botanical Garden and taught at Washington University and I taught art at Mary Institute. During these years, we did a lot of boating, canoeing on the clear whitewater streams of Missouri and Arkansas, building two houseboats which we took on leisurely trips on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers as well as smaller streams. Canoeing was always a favorite pastime. While in Brazil, we bartered for a native mahogany canoe, 27 feet long carved out of one tree trunk, and spent several days floating down the Paraguay River. One summer, while Hugh was teaching at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and I was taking art classes, I learned to sail in their sailing club. We took Hugh’s paycheck and bought a Corsair, a French-built miniature ocean-racing sailboat. That was the first of our three sailboats. We took two weeks to two months at a time and sailed around Key West, out to the Bahamas, and to the Dry Tortugas. This went on for years, until the drug trades made it seem too dangerous to sail alone. We switched to the Great Lakes and sailed Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Georgian Bay. It was a great life. When Hugh retired, we moved to just outside of San Francisco, but came back for several years to sail the Great Lakes. We sold our last canoe just over a year ago when we moved to Topeka, where our son and family live. My husband died of heart failure a few months ago. It has really been a happy life. We saw all 50 states, Europe several times, much of South and Central America, and had some good hobbies, including painting and gold- and silver-smithing. It is hard to condense a lifetime into one page. I hope my classmates are well and as happy with their lives as I have been with mine.”
Marian spent her last years at a retirement community which offered her all the activities she enjoyed like painting, wood carving, pottery, card games, and puzzles, and made lots of new friends. She also took time to write down many stories from her adventurous life with Hugh, mostly from South America. She treasured her only granddaughter Antoinette and followed her growing-up years into adulthood and a Master’s degree with great interest. She loved theater and music and attended many of the flute recitals of her daughter-in-law and her ensemble. She will be greatly missed.
Marian Cutler passed away at Brewster Health Center August 19, 2015. The daughter of Herbert and Ruth (Paul) Cornell, she was born September 25, 1917 in Blue Rapids, Kansas. She grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, attending Milwaukee Downer College and graduated from the University of Iowa. She married Hugh C. Cutler in 1940. They lived in St. Louis and outside San Francisco before moving to Topeka in 1998. Hugh died later that year.
Marian was an artist and teacher, as well as a support for her scientist husband in his fieldwork throughout the Southwest and Central and South America. She leaves behind her son Bill, his wife Elisabeth and granddaughter Antoinette, and the four children and their families of her late brother Paul W. Cornell, as well as many friends. The family gratefully acknowledges the staff, residents and volunteers of both Aldersgate Village and Brewster Place where she spent her last years in Topeka, and the staff of Kansas Hospice Care. A private interment ceremony at Blue Rapids, Kansas is planned for a later date.
In 1998, Milwaukee Downer College (now Lawrence University) requested alumni send in their life stories for a collection of biographies of the class of 1939. Marian submitted the following:
“I treasure the two years I spent at Downer. From there, I went to the University of Iowa to enroll in their course of Actuarial Science. I worked at National Guardian Life Insurance Company in Madison, Wisconsin as assistant actuary for a year before marrying Hugh Cutler, Ph.D., a research botanist. We went to Mexico for four months on a combined honeymoon and plant-collecting trip. After that, we roamed the Southwest, again collecting plants. We spent the summer of 1941 in Cuba at the Harvard Botanical Research Station. From there, Harvard sent us to South America, Hugh as a botanist and me as a photographer. Hugh was looking for primitive forms of corn, and I was taking photos to be used in Harvard’s botanical classes. We spent five years in Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia. When WWII came, Hugh was recruited by the U.S. War Department to work in Brazil. Rubber was in short supply and big demand. He covered seven states by jeep, horseback and Navy blimp, hunting for stands of wild rubber-yielding trees, then teaching the natives how to tap and process the latex to be sent to the U.S. While he was doing this, I was hired by the U. S. State department to organize and run a cultural institute in northern Brazil.
Back in the States after the war was over, our son, Bill, was born. Hugh was teaching at Harvard. He was offered a position in Chicago with the Museum of Natural History. We were happy to move back to the Midwest, After four years in Chicago, we moved to St. Louis, where Hugh worked at the Missouri Botanical Garden and taught at Washington University and I taught art at Mary Institute. During these years, we did a lot of boating, canoeing on the clear whitewater streams of Missouri and Arkansas, building two houseboats which we took on leisurely trips on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers as well as smaller streams. Canoeing was always a favorite pastime. While in Brazil, we bartered for a native mahogany canoe, 27 feet long carved out of one tree trunk, and spent several days floating down the Paraguay River. One summer, while Hugh was teaching at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and I was taking art classes, I learned to sail in their sailing club. We took Hugh’s paycheck and bought a Corsair, a French-built miniature ocean-racing sailboat. That was the first of our three sailboats. We took two weeks to two months at a time and sailed around Key West, out to the Bahamas, and to the Dry Tortugas. This went on for years, until the drug trades made it seem too dangerous to sail alone. We switched to the Great Lakes and sailed Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Georgian Bay. It was a great life. When Hugh retired, we moved to just outside of San Francisco, but came back for several years to sail the Great Lakes. We sold our last canoe just over a year ago when we moved to Topeka, where our son and family live. My husband died of heart failure a few months ago. It has really been a happy life. We saw all 50 states, Europe several times, much of South and Central America, and had some good hobbies, including painting and gold- and silver-smithing. It is hard to condense a lifetime into one page. I hope my classmates are well and as happy with their lives as I have been with mine.”
Marian spent her last years at a retirement community which offered her all the activities she enjoyed like painting, wood carving, pottery, card games, and puzzles, and made lots of new friends. She also took time to write down many stories from her adventurous life with Hugh, mostly from South America. She treasured her only granddaughter Antoinette and followed her growing-up years into adulthood and a Master’s degree with great interest. She loved theater and music and attended many of the flute recitals of her daughter-in-law and her ensemble. She will be greatly missed.
Marian was an artist and teacher, as well as a support for her scientist husband in his fieldwork throughout the Southwest and Central and South America. She leaves behind her son Bill, his wife Elisabeth and granddaughter Antoinette, and the four children and their families of her late brother Paul W. Cornell, as well as many friends. The family gratefully acknowledges the staff, residents and volunteers of both Aldersgate Village and Brewster Place where she spent her last years in Topeka, and the staff of Kansas Hospice Care. A private interment ceremony at Blue Rapids, Kansas is planned for a later date.
In 1998, Milwaukee Downer College (now Lawrence University) requested alumni send in their life stories for a collection of biographies of the class of 1939. Marian submitted the following:
“I treasure the two years I spent at Downer. From there, I went to the University of Iowa to enroll in their course of Actuarial Science. I worked at National Guardian Life Insurance Company in Madison, Wisconsin as assistant actuary for a year before marrying Hugh Cutler, Ph.D., a research botanist. We went to Mexico for four months on a combined honeymoon and plant-collecting trip. After that, we roamed the Southwest, again collecting plants. We spent the summer of 1941 in Cuba at the Harvard Botanical Research Station. From there, Harvard sent us to South America, Hugh as a botanist and me as a photographer. Hugh was looking for primitive forms of corn, and I was taking photos to be used in Harvard’s botanical classes. We spent five years in Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia. When WWII came, Hugh was recruited by the U.S. War Department to work in Brazil. Rubber was in short supply and big demand. He covered seven states by jeep, horseback and Navy blimp, hunting for stands of wild rubber-yielding trees, then teaching the natives how to tap and process the latex to be sent to the U.S. While he was doing this, I was hired by the U. S. State department to organize and run a cultural institute in northern Brazil.
Back in the States after the war was over, our son, Bill, was born. Hugh was teaching at Harvard. He was offered a position in Chicago with the Museum of Natural History. We were happy to move back to the Midwest, After four years in Chicago, we moved to St. Louis, where Hugh worked at the Missouri Botanical Garden and taught at Washington University and I taught art at Mary Institute. During these years, we did a lot of boating, canoeing on the clear whitewater streams of Missouri and Arkansas, building two houseboats which we took on leisurely trips on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers as well as smaller streams. Canoeing was always a favorite pastime. While in Brazil, we bartered for a native mahogany canoe, 27 feet long carved out of one tree trunk, and spent several days floating down the Paraguay River. One summer, while Hugh was teaching at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and I was taking art classes, I learned to sail in their sailing club. We took Hugh’s paycheck and bought a Corsair, a French-built miniature ocean-racing sailboat. That was the first of our three sailboats. We took two weeks to two months at a time and sailed around Key West, out to the Bahamas, and to the Dry Tortugas. This went on for years, until the drug trades made it seem too dangerous to sail alone. We switched to the Great Lakes and sailed Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Georgian Bay. It was a great life. When Hugh retired, we moved to just outside of San Francisco, but came back for several years to sail the Great Lakes. We sold our last canoe just over a year ago when we moved to Topeka, where our son and family live. My husband died of heart failure a few months ago. It has really been a happy life. We saw all 50 states, Europe several times, much of South and Central America, and had some good hobbies, including painting and gold- and silver-smithing. It is hard to condense a lifetime into one page. I hope my classmates are well and as happy with their lives as I have been with mine.”
Marian spent her last years at a retirement community which offered her all the activities she enjoyed like painting, wood carving, pottery, card games, and puzzles, and made lots of new friends. She also took time to write down many stories from her adventurous life with Hugh, mostly from South America. She treasured her only granddaughter Antoinette and followed her growing-up years into adulthood and a Master’s degree with great interest. She loved theater and music and attended many of the flute recitals of her daughter-in-law and her ensemble. She will be greatly missed.
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