Cynthia Golitzen Garn

Cynthia Victoria Golitzen Garn passed quickly at Ginger Cove in Annapolis, Maryland on July 1, 2023 after complications from a variety of conditions just thirty days shy of her ninety-first birthday. She led a full life from her birth in New York, childhood in Hollywood during the golden era of film, working for the Central Intelligence Agency in Post-World War II Europe, raising a family in Arlington, VA, enjoying a second career at the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC, twenty-plus years volunteering as a Master Gardner and Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO) in San Diego, CA, and a proud grandmother in Annapolis, MD.

Cynthia was born to Frances Peters and John Pogany, son of artist Willy Pogony, in New York on July 31, 1932. Frances soon moved back to her native Los Angeles with Cynthia and worked for Metro Goldwin Mayer film studio in the history department. There she met and married Alexander Golitzen who rose through the ranks from a trick rider in the silent era to Supervising Art Director of Universal Studios from 1955 to 1976 garnering 14 Academy Award Nominations including three wins for Phantom of the Opera, Spartacus, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Alex adopted Cynthia in the 1930s, and she always considered Alex her dad. Her younger brother, Peter Golitzen, was born right before World War II.

Growing up in Hollywood, Cynthia recalled going to elementary school with Elizabeth Taylor and college with Carol Burnett. Cynthia took after her dad, Alex, and was a very talented artist in a number of mediums including watercolors, ceramics, and sewing. She took after her mother Frances with wide ranging interests in world culture, archeology, history and read more than a few mysteries. She attended both Colorado College and UCLA where she was a Gamma Phi Beta like her namesake niece Cynthia Marie Golitzen Brixie.

After college, she worked with her cousin Marina Beadleston at UCSF Medical School before joining the Central Intelligence Agency. She was stationed in Germany where she met two of her lifelong friends Charlotte Mesic and Peggy Ruffner. Peggy introduced Cynthia to her University of Montana classmate then Army Major Phil Riter Garn. After an exciting courtship going from city to city on the European continent, Phil R. and Cynthia were engaged. She returned to California to prepare for her wedding, and married Phil in December 1958. They began what she thought would be a globe-trotting Army life, which turned out to be California, Chicago, and Minnesota where she had her first child, Phil Golitzen Garn. She lived with her young son in Balboa and Monterey, California while Phil R., was in Korea doing a gig with the CIA. Their next stop was Washington D.C., which she figured would be a two-to-three-year tour, where had her second son, Paul Alexander Garn in 1963. However, Phil R. retired from the Army and went to work for the CIA. Had circumstances been different, the next stop after having her daughter Victoria T. (Garn) Crowe would be Vientiane, Laos in 1968 with the whole family. Phil R. said Vientiane was far too dangerous and he would go unaccompanied but not with his family. Fortunately for the Garn family, assignments were changed, but the man sent in our father’s place did not come back.

In order to escape the punishing heat and humidity of August in Arlington, Cynthia found a delightful old lodge in Yankee magazine called the Oakland House in the early 1970s, and the Garns with their dog Cookie would return there for many summers and make more lifelong friends particularly the Ushers of Connecticut, the Napolitanos of Maryland and the Walthausens of Pennsylvania. The families had many adventures together around Penobscot Bay Down East.

Once all the kids were in school, Cynthia completed her bachelor’s degree at George Mason University where she formed a warm friendship with her antiquities and art history professor Dr. Carol Mattusch. Cynthia then went back to work with her lifelong friend Peggy Ruffner at the National Science Foundation and made new friends including Shelly Henderson.

After Phil R. retired from the CIA, Cynthia nearly got the entire family out to California where Phil G. was in the Navy and later a Postal Inspector, and Victoria was getting her MFA in studio art at San Diego State University. Paul was working on the East Coast as a NASA engineer on Space Shuttle flights. In San Diego, Cynthia and Phil R. often hosted family parties well remembered by her grandnephews Dan and Stephen Vaquero, who also spent a lot of time as young boys in the Garn’s pool to beat the heat. Cynthia was very active with the San Diego Master Gardeners serving on the re-accreditation committee and with the PEO women’s club. Later Cynthia traveled with Peggy and Bob Ruffner to Egypt, the trip of her life, as well as to Turkey with Dr. Mattusch. She often hosted friends and family from around the world at her home. Additionally, she moved her parents Alex and Frances down from their house in Los Angeles to San Diego and took good care of them until their passings at ages 97 and 101 respectively.

Phil R. had a stroke in 2013 and gradually declined until passing away in 2014 after 57 years of marriage. Cynthia moved to Ginger Cove in Annapolis, MD to be with her son Paul, daughter-in-law Stacy and grandsons, Matthew and Henry whom she absolutely adored. She also reconnected with many friends from the old neighborhood in Arlington now dispersed around the DC Metro area. Sadly, her good friends Bob and Peggy Ruffner and Shelly and Jack Henderson preceded her in death. Cynthia worked in Ginger Cove’s convenience store as a volunteer, played mahjong with friends, and enjoyed local theater and arts activities throughout the Annapolis/DC Metro area. Her greatest joys were being with Matthew and Henry including seeing them play on the same championship Navy youth hockey team.

Cynthia is survived by son Phil G. Garn and daughter-in-law Lisa Garn of Coronado, California; son Paul Garn and daughter-in-law Stacy Ramos Garn and their children Matthew and Henry of Annapolis, Maryland; daughter Victoria Crowe of Canon City, Colorado; niece Cynthia Marie Golitzen Brixie and nephew-in-law John Brixie and their children Sam and Noah of Castro Valley, California; nephew Greg Golitzen and niece-in-law Maria Golitzen and their children Mariahishi and Alexander of San Francisco; niece Roulhac (Garn) Austin of Memphis, Tennessee; grandnephew in law Dan Vaquero, wife Jennifer Vaquero and their children Mason, Max and Pilar; and grandnephew in law Stephen Vaquero and wife Tania Vaquero.

A memorial visitation will be held at Ginger Cove (Friendship Hall) on Saturday, August 19, 2023 from 10:30 to 11:30 am. A memorial service will begin at 11:30 AM.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared on this website for the Garn family.