Linda I. Hannick

Dr. Linda I. Hannick passed away at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC, on October 27, 2020. After three spinal surgeries in seven months, each with ensuing complications, Linda’s heart failed and could not be revived. Her passing was unexpected by her and everyone around her. She was 73 years old.

Linda was born in Aberdeen, Washington, on June 18, 1947, and grew up in Hoquiam, WA. Both towns are on Grays Harbor, just south of the Olympic Peninsula. Her parents, Lawrence and June Hannick, owned a grocery store in Hoquiam. “Hoquiam” is a Quinault Indian word meaning “hungry for wood,” which is what the Native Americans said of the first settlers.

Linda was preceded in death by her parents, a brother, Larry Jr., who died after one day of life in 1951, a sister, Joan, who died of ovarian cancer at age 15 in 1969, and a grandson, Lester Gauthier, who died by suicide in 2019. She is survived by her second husband, Henry Maury, of Washington, DC, her brother, Thomas Hannick of Lakewood, WA (Cindy Clements), five daughters, Elizabeth (Beth) Foss of Seattle, Cynthia (Cindy) Williams of New York City, Lisa Foss of Seattle (Rossano Passarella), Leah Foss of Seattle, and Kristina (Kriss) Foss of Picayune, MS (John Jackson), and Linda’s first husband, Lanny Foss of New Orleans (Jean Foss). She is also survived by six living grandchildren (Sophia Foss, Devin Hernandez, Melissa Gauthier (Matthew Eads), Kaitlyn Morton (Tony), Sabrina Pirzada, and Lillian Price) and four great-grandchildren (Marlaina Eads and Charity, Addison, and Lilliana Morton).

Linda married Lanny Foss in 1965, and they had three children (Beth, and twins Lisa and Leah) in 1966 and 1967. They lived in Seattle while both parents went to school at the University of Washington. In 1982, Linda completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry at Xavier University in New Orleans, a Historical Black University that is known for producing a very high number of pre-med graduates. Linda earned her PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of New Orleans in 1986 (at age 39).

While in New Orleans, Linda and Lanny adopted teenagers Kristina in 1981 and Cindy in 1983. That’s how they ended up with five daughters spaced over only 22 months in age.

Linda and Lanny divorced in 1986, and Linda did her post-doctoral work at a small company in Utica, NY. After less than a year there, she moved to Washington, DC, to take a job at the Naval Research Laboratory, working under Nobel Laureate Jerome Karle. Her primary work there was successfully crystallized Green Fluorescent Protein. That project played a part in the Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Tsien in 2008.

Linda moved to the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases in 1994, still doing crystallography, and then to genomics at the J. Craig Venter Institute (known earlier as The Institute for Genetic Research) in 2001, where she worked on genomes for the insects that transmit Lyme disease, yellow fever, and West Nile virus. In 2012 she became a technical project manager for cancer proteomics, at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, where she managed the contractor side of the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium. CPTAC is a national effort to accelerate the understanding of the molecular basis of cancer through the application of large-scale proteome and genome analysis. Linda retired from that work in June 2020.

Linda married the love of her life, Henry Maury, in 1992. Henry spent a 37-year career working for the U.S. General Services Administration, retiring in 2011. They met after Henry put an “in search of” ad in the Washingtonian Magazine. The ad said Henry was looking for a very intelligent woman, and he certainly found one. Linda and Henry had 28 wonderful years together. They travelled extensively, cooked together, renovated a Capitol Hill townhouse, were Washington Nationals season ticket holders from the beginning in 2005, and welcomed one granddaughter (Sophia Foss) for her last three years of high school and two years after college. Several other young friends and relatives found refuge in their home for months or years at a time. And for 28 years, she and Henry gathered daughters and grandchildren for a week in the summer, most often in Pensacola or Navarre Beach, Florida.

The sign on the mantle in their living rooms says: “It’s the cats’ house; we just pay the mortgage.” Nuff said about that.

In addition to her work as a scientist, Linda always needed to be doing something in the creative arts. She took many stunning photographs over her adult life. She was an expert seamstress and taught her children to sew. For many years, she made beautiful jewelry and plates out of fused glass, expanding her skills into metal smithing in 2019. She enjoyed gardening, crafting, and card-making at the beach trips. Most recently, she wrote and decorated 1500 postcards to voters in support of numerous Democratic candidates in the 2018 and 2020 elections.

Faith and the Catholic Church were always fundamental parts of Linda’s life. Linda started taking herself to Mass at age six. She was a member of St. Peter’s Church on Capitol Hill in Washington from 1988 until her death, and she and Henry were married at St. Peter’s in 1992. She served many years as a member of the Parish Council, was a Eucharistic Minister, and until her death was working on the committee planning the church’s renovation.

One neighbor summarized Linda’s impact with this: “We have all been enriched by Linda’s boundless joy, intellect and curiosity. Not to mention her relentless protection of our civil rights, women’s rights and democracy.” Others mentioned her warmth, humor, kindness, caring, and generosity. She will be sorely missed by her family and everyone else she touched at work and at home.

This is what Linda said about how she wanted to be remembered: “I have traveled a long road, from a small town in Washington, through lean times to relative prosperity. It took me a long time to find the path that was right for me. I hope I found it. I always have felt that everything I had was to be shared, including family life, resources and time.

“I found great joy in life and do not have regrets. I had many adventures, achievements and wonderful children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Who could ask for more! My family, friends and faith in God are the most important things in my life. I want to be remembered with joy, and I hope the memories bring a smile.”

In lieu of flowers, the following charities were important to Linda: Jose Andres World Central Kitchen (https://wck.org/), The Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research (https://rivkin.org/), the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (https://afsp.org/),

or your local suicide prevention organization.

The Funeral Mass will be at St. Peter’s on Saturday, November 7, 2020 at 1:00 PM. Here are the details about the Funeral Mass and, in particular, about streaming it or signing up for in-person attendance: https://saintpetersdc.org/news/58-highlighted-news/35136-funeral-mass-for-linda-hannick. The Rite of Committal and burial will be at a later date, in the Maury family plot at Grace Episcopal Church, Keswick, VA.