Obituary
Programmer. Mother. Perpetual Student. Follower of Christ
Marjorie Saxon Leach was a woman who never stopped wanting to know more. Whether it was about computers when computers were brand new, about the cultures of countries she visited, or about the stranger sitting next to her. She passed from life to light peacefully, leaving behind a life of substance: pioneering work in the earliest days of computing, a family she loved, a church community she served, and a long trail of friends.
In 1956, Marge joined IBM in Poughkeepsie, New York, as an early employee of IBM research. Computing in the mid-1950s had only a handful of women who braved the new world with courage and determination. Marge was drawn to the logic of computers, but also the part that really mattered… finding out how the programs she designed would actually fix the problems people had.
She worked at IBM’s research campus, known as “the Farm,” and it was during her time at IBM that she contributed to the development of automatic abstracting and the SABRE system, the real-time reservation system IBM built with American Airlines.
After IBM, she continued her career as a programmer, lending her expertise to organizations including Westinghouse, Bechtel Power, Kenneys Shoes and Pacific Area Travel Association. She was never someone who coasted on what she already knew, she was a lifelong learner who had a willingness to go into something new and figure it out. The mechanics of an unfamiliar system, the history of a country she visited, the story of the person across from her at the dinner table were fascinating.
Marge had a gift for interviewing people. She asked questions, following up, going deeper, genuinely interested in what she was hearing. Every person was a new subject, a new story she hadn’t heard yet. She never got tired of that.
Marge was a devoted mother to Beth and Sharon and wife to her husband of over 50 years, Wally. She raised the girls in Orinda California and Gaithersburg Maryland and participated in everything they were involved with including hiking, skiing, horseback riding, campfire girls and girl scouts and more. In addition to her two biological daughters, Margee Mossman, Beth’s dear friend from school, was like a third daughter. Margee spent so much time with her that everyone assumed she was one of the daughters, and in so many ways she really is. Margee’s family, Tim, Megan, and Mandy, shared many outings and celebrations with her over the years and are truly family in spirit, if not by blood.
As a grandmother to Samantha, Jessica, Wren, and Bryan, she found a particular joy. She took genuine delight in them, in who they were and who they were becoming.
Travel was one of the great loves of Marge’s life. She explored the world by herself and with Wally, making her way through Europe, the middle east, and China. Her sisters joined her on many journeys, and they shared a bond that few siblings have. The stories of those adventures were things no one could imagine.
After Wally passed, Marge kept going. She traveled with her daughters Beth and Sharon, to Ireland, Canada and northern California.
At Gaithersburg Presbyterian Church, Marge committed herself to the kind of work that congregations are built on. Through committees, Muffin Ministries and SOME (So Others Might Eat) she contributed to the community.
A woman who sat down at an IBM terminal in 1956 and helped build the infrastructure of modern computing, who raised two daughters and loved her grandchildren, who served her church and fed her community and never once seemed to feel that service was a burden. Who traveled the world with her husband, her sisters, and her daughters, always wanting to see more, understand more, ask one more question.
Turns out that’s a pretty good way to live.
She is survived by her daughters, four grandchildren, and her sisters Sandra Crichton, Joanne Martin, and Linda Hoard, as well as by numerous nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Walter Leach and sister Sharon Vivian Crespo.
She was here. She asked good questions. She is loved.
If you would like to make a donation in her name, please donate to Gaithersburg Presbyterian Church.
