Margaret Marilyn Taylor, 96, passed peacefully on December 17, 2020, in Gardnerville. She was born on March 27, 1924, at Stanford University Hospital in San Francisco to Archie R. Mack and Margaret M. Mack.
Margaret was raised in Berkeley, California and attended Thousand Oaks School, Garfield Junior High, graduating from University High School in Oakland in 1941. She loved school and continued her studies at the University of California, Berkeley and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1946 with a degree in history. In 1949, she met her husband to be Terrence H.M. Taylor, another Berkeley graduate, and they married in Reno, Nevada on July 29, 1950 and resided in Berkeley. In 1953, she began her career at the university of California, Berkeley in the College of Chemistry until her retirement in 1996. She worked as support staff in the Calvin group that led to the discovery of how plants photosynthesize and to Dr. Calvin’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1961. In May 1995, she received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award for outstanding service to the University of California, Berkeley. Margaret loved to travel and to serve the community which she did energetically. After retirement, she found great pleasure in volunteering as a docent at the Lawrence Hall of Science on the Berkeley Campus and became deeply involved in the science museum docent organization at the national level. In 2003, she moved from Berkeley to Incline Village, Nevada to be closer to her sons.
She raised four children in her home in Berkeley who survive her: Terry Taylor (Minden, NV, Susan), Alan Taylor (State College, PA, Kristin), Gary Taylor (Washoe City, NV, Melanie), and Lynn Taylor (Las Vegas, NV). She cherished time with her grandchildren Kendra Taylor (Atlanta, GA, Anour), and Erik Taylor (Ithaca, NY). She was preceded in death by her spouse (June 19, 1985).
Our family would like to thank the staff of Pegasus Senior Care, the Gardnerville Health and Rehabilitation and Kindred Hospice for dedication to her care. There will be no service, and her ashes will be scattered to repose with her spouse.