June 27, 1925 to July 29, 2023

Days after a family celebration of her 98th birthday, Marjorie laid her frail body down, whispered, “I feel complete…I’m leaving,” and on July 29, 2023, after a quiet two-week sleep, she passed away peacefully, attended by loving family, in her Raleigh Hills home.
Born June 27, 1925 to Burl and Ernestine Wilder in the hamlet of Chenango Forks, N.Y., (which is, to the disbelief of her children, an actual place), Marjorie Lou Wilder was the eldest of four siblings. The Wilders moved from town to town through the 1930’s, traveling from Florida to Maine following the bridge-building projects of her construction foreman father (and unheralded creator of the Jersey barrier!), settling finally in Wethersfield, Conn. She attended Oakwood Friends School where she met her future husband Benjamin Ross, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Elmira College, and was married in 1948. They moved to Rochester, N.Y., where Marge, working as a secretary at The Kodak Company, was pulled aside one day by Kodak technicians to sit for a photo-shoot, and thus became one of the first persons ever imaged through a color television camera lens. (See photo).

In 1954, now “Dr.” Ben Ross accepted a research professorship at the University of Oregon Medical School (now OHSU), transplanting the Ross family of four via Dodge station wagon 3,000 miles cross-country to the wild west of Garden Home, Ore., where Marjorie’s pre-colonial, established east-coast family was convinced the Ross’s would surely die along the Oregon Trail.

Miraculously, they survived the trip. Marjorie became the quintessential 1950’s mother, housekeeper and PTA President, and in the idyllic “Leave it to Beaver” suburban settings of Garden Home and Raleigh Hills she raised “a team”, she proudly boasted, of five “smart and funny” children – future successful artists, actors, lawyers and real estate brokers – on Sugar Frosted Flakes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and Campbell’s chicken noodle soup. The Ross children even enjoyed an unearned status boost at school when their dad assisted in the 1962 birth of Packy the elephant at the Portland Zoo.

Upon Ben’s death in 1974, Marjorie (now “Buzzi” to friends and family) became a beloved teacher and adored librarian at Whitford JHS. After retirement, Buzzi continued her library work, receiving the Library Volunteer Award for “Outstanding Dedication and Service” to Beaverton School District libraries. She also stayed busy as a gifted quilt maker, NY Times Acrostic master and an indomitable online Scrabble player.

Marjorie was preceded in death by husband, Dr. Benjamin Ross; daughter, Frances Ross; and sister, Phyllis Wilson. She is survived by sister, Ruth Green; and brother, Alan Wilder; sons and daughters, Burl Ross (Valarie Hart), Dorothy Rothrock, Raymond Ross and Virginia Ross; grandchildren, Katelyn Ross Gyulafia (Mark), Annie Rothrock, Thomas Rothrock (Ali), Alexandra Ross Jackson (Matt); and great-grandchildren, Marleigh, Owen, Treygan, Benjamin, Bailey and Mason. She will be greatly missed by all families, west coast and east.

In lieu of flowers, family requests donations be made in Marjorie’s name to the Oregon Education Association at https://oregoned.org/oea-pac

A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date to be announced.