Phyllis Swain Gottfried's Obituary
Phyllis Gottfried was born September 17, 1926, in Chicago, and died April 26, 2015 in Walnut Creek, CA. Her parents were George and Loyola Swain. She Moved to Davenport, IA at age 2 and attended local schools there. She was a graduate of Davenport High School in 1944. She received a B.A. in 1948 from Marycrest College of Davenport, IA, with a major in mathematics and a minor in art history, and she was elected to the Kappa Gamma Pi Honor Society. She earned her M.A. in mathematics education at Columbia University Teachers College in 1956.
In her career as a mathematics teacher, Phyllis taught at Tiskilwa, IL High School, U.S. Army Schools in Germany, in Bridgetown, as a Fulbright Teaching Scholar, Montclair, NJ High School, Rye-Neck, NY High School, and as mathematics department chair for the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, Westchester County NY.
Phyllis married Eugene Gottfried August 16, 1957 in New York City. They had no children. She is survived by her husband; a sister, Mary Ellen Albrecht of Mesa, AZ; two nieces, one nephew, 3 grandnieces, and one great grandnephew.
The couple moved to Orinda, CA in 1981 when her husband accepted a position at the University of California, San Francisco.
Phyllis’s interest in computers developed around 1965. She began teaching computer programming in the late 1960’s to show her mathematics students that algebra has a practical use. She leased a Hewlett Packard minicomputer and terminals well before the development of personal computers. Westchester County BOCES soon recruited her to extend her computer courses to other schools in the county. She developed a network of ~100 schools before leading the transition to small free-standing computers. During this time she joined the New York State Educational Data Systems group, becoming the first teacher to serve as its president.
She was an avid traveler. She and her husband traveled extensively around the world during their 58 years together. She also enjoyed photography, art, skiing, classical music and theatre.
Phyllis was a volunteer for the San Francisco Symphony and its Contra Costa County League, served as the League’s president, and was co-chair of the Symphony’s fund-raising wine program for 8 years. She also spent a year as chair of the San Francisco Performances volunteer program and many years as a docent and docent teacher at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, including a term as president of docents.
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