Judith Anne Guitton

Judy was born (a Pisces) March 6, 1941, the daughter of Lawrence E. Helmer and M. Ruth Van Gorder, who had met and married in Portland, Oregon.

Judy grew up in San Carlos, CA and graduated from Carlmont High School in 1959. Already working as a fellow journalist for the Peninsula Paper, she entered UC Berkeley with a scholarship from the San Francisco Press and Union League Club. She met and married William D. Kester, and the young couple moved to San Francisco to continue their studies. Their first daughter, Elizabeth (Lisa) was born in San Francisco in 1961 and their second daughter Kate was born 5 years later in Yakima, Washington, where Bill had joined the faculty at Yakima Valley Community College. They then returned to the San Francisco Bay area in 1967.

Bill was a drama and speech instructor and director and Judy was a stay at home mom. She received her BA (cum laude) in English and her MA (summa cum laude) in Linguistics in 1981 from San Jose State College. (University)

A few years after her first marriage ended, Judy married Christian C. Guitton, an engineer, in 1976. The family continued living in San Jose, CA and traveled frequently to Christian’s birthplace and family home, Paris, France. His work provided opportunities for travel in Asia, including China, Japan, Korea and Macau, and Judy had the experience of living and teaching English in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Her career as a teacher of English as a Second Language for adults spanned over 30 years. She once calculated that she had taught over 300 students from over 100 countries at that time. She taught intermediate college students at San Jose State University, San Jose Community College, Edmonds Community College and Stanford. She also taught ESL to businessmen and engineers from IBM, General Electric and Hewlett Packard, housewives, a Japanese baseball team, migrant worker’s children (as a volunteer). This teaching experience spanned all levels of life and all corners of the world. She taught all levels and all skills of English as a Second Language. She loved her students and they loved her. Many became close friends she met again on her travels to Japan, France, Italy and Holland. Students appreciated that her classes were organized, her expectations were high and that she challenged them. She was respected by colleagues and was often asked by administrators to present workshops for new teachers.

Although she always worked as a teacher, she also had an innate talent for writing. She wrote high school and community articles for the Peninsula newspapers. Later, she wrote regularly for community newsletters and several professional publications. She was co-editor of the San Jose Peace Times and wrote copy for an advertising agency in Yakima, Washington. She also enjoyed a several year stint as a feature writer for the Edmonds Beacon.

Wherever she lived, she was actively involved in the community. Her involvement ranged from being a member of the Upper Noe Valley Mothers Club in San Francisco, the YVC Faculty Wives Club, the San Jose Peace Center in San Jose, Friends of the Earth in Hong Kong, the Campus Community Association, to being on the Board of Directors in Edmonds in Bloom and the good fortune of being a charter member of the wonderful, whimsical Upper Edmonds Book and Cake Society. She contributed her time and money to charities that supported peace and justice, women and children, the environment and the arts.

The accomplishments that Judy was proudest of in her life, beside her two daughters, were earning an MA in Linguistics; teaching 2 summers at Stanford University and working as a volunteer at Gerald Durrell’s Wildlife Preservation Trust on the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel. It was one of her many trips to Jersey, which she loved and she always felt at home.

Judy often combined her love of travel with her spiritual journey. This meant a personal pilgrimage that she took to sites that included the Cathedral at Guadalajara on Easter Sunday to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City to the Aztec Pyramids of Teotihuacán in Mexico to the mahikari dojos to great pine scented Shinto shrines throughout Japan. She also went to temples in Korea, Hong Kong and Hawaii, the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, a prehistoric dolman, the Lavigne Glass Church in Jersey to the medieval Vezelay in France and the resting place for relics of Mary Magdalene and her favorite, which she returned to often, the majestic Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, France. At each of these sites, she prayed for peace and she prayed for you.

Travel meant not only praying but swimming as well. She saw to it that she swam in the waters of the Pacific, the South China Sea, the Sea of Cortez, the English Channel, the Mediterranean and countless lakes, rivers, bays as well as the Puget Sound.

She adored her children and grandchildren. She loved art, books, laughing, old friends, confetti, crosswords, chocolate, old times and living in Edmonds by the Puget Sound. She liked to sing, too, but most people would rather she didn’t. She always said she could never get over her good luck at being born in America, in the west in the 20th century as part of the Van Gorder family and she was grateful.

She is survived by her daughter, Lisa LoFranco of Bothell (husband Tony and children John, Tina and Michael , along with their spouses, Kaila, Mike Grant and Michele and their children, Dominic, Sebastian, Stella and Scarlet.) She is also survived by daughter Kate Kester of San Jose, CA (her husband Charles Brady and son, Sam) her half sister, Jennifer Helmer (children Justin and Michelle, grandchildren Cody and Kayden) as well as lifelong best friend Nancy Tonkin of Philomath, Oregon as well as many other beloved friends and favorite students throughout the world. She helped many people learn, she made people laugh, she brought us all joy.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.floralhillslynnwood.com for the Guitton family.