Mary Louise Oswald Griffitts

Dr. Mary Louise Oswald Griffitts of Boulder passed away at Boulder Community Hospital on June 20th 2010 at age 90. Mary was born on April 12, 1920 to Dr. Edgar Oswald and Elvira Farmer Oswald in DeTour Village, Michigan, on the Upper Peninsula. She graduated from University of Michigan in 1941 with a BS in Geology. In 1944 she became the first female to receive a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Colorado. She was a professional geologist, specializing in invertebrate paleontology. She taught at Bryn Mawr and at Univ. of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. She also worked as a ranger naturalist in Yellowstone National Park. In 1946 she was hired at the University of Colorado to teach historical geology and invertebrate paleontology. She married Wallace R. Griffitts on September 7, 1946, and left teaching to raise her family. Mary gave geology talks to schoolchildren throughout Boulder, and helped found the Boulder Junior Natural Sciences School, which later became the Thorne Ecological institute.In 1981 she began to work summers as a paleontologist at Mesa Verde National Park, doing a detailed study of their fossil collection. Over the next 20 plus years she collected and catalogued hundreds of fine fossils and produced a detailed map and several publications for the park, finally retiring at age 83.She is survived by her husband of 63 years, and by daughter Elizabeth of Dolores, CO; son Jonathan (Julie) and grandsons Daniel and James of Boulder; daughter Dr. Janet Griffitts (Brian McKee) of Tucson, AZ; daughter Dr. Caroline Griffitts (James Sanford) of Loveland, CO; nephews Robert, William and Richard Oswald, and niece Barbara Wenberg. She was a member of St. Luke's Eastern Orthodox Church.A Trisagion Service followed by a Celebration of Life reception will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 27, at St. Luke's Eastern Orthodox Church, 722 Austin Avenue, Erie, Colorado 80516A Funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, June 28, 2010 at St. Luke's Eastern Orthodox Church, 722 Austin Avenue, Erie, Colorado with Reverend David Mustian officiating. Burial will follow at Green Mountain Cemetery, Boulder, CO.Memorial contributions are requested to the Mary Oswald Griffitts Memorial Fund, to be used for Paleontology students at the University of Colorado, c/o Howe Mortuary, 439 Coffman St. Longmont, CO. 80501