Mary H. Foote

Mary was born on September 14, 1945, in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where her parents, who were married in 1943, were stationed for wartime service. She moved to different locations in early childhood and ended up in Wheaton, Maryland, where she lived with the family (and on campus, at the University of Maryland College Park) until she moved out in 1968. She majored in education and taught for two years in Maryland and then for five more years in Illinois.

After working at John Deere Tractor and the Lee Tire Companies, she settled back in Maryland, where she obtained an entry-level position at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). With diligence, education, and persistence, she obtained a high-level security clearance and ended up in the field of network security as a senior security engineer. She retired from CSC and then worked for SGT, from which she retired in 2016. Both companies were under contract to NASA, and Mary was very proud to work for NASA. She was known as a hard-working and very personable employee.

Mary’s life certainly was not confined to computers. After the death of her father, she assumed responsibility for her mother’s financial affairs and arranged nursing care for her. Taking after her mother and her grandmother, Mary was an avid doll collector. She had just bought a brand-new doll cabinet shortly before her death, and several dolls that she had ordered arrived after her demise. She was a long time member of the Dollology Club of Washington, D.C., following in her parents and grandmother’s footsteps. She was also a charter member of the new Best Friends Forever (BFF) Ball Jointed Doll (BJD) Club.

Mary’s close survivors include two brothers, John I. Foote and Earl H. Foote; a sister-in-law, Janet Foote; two nephews, Matthew (married to Azusa) and Ben (married to Sabrina); and a close friend, C. Lynn Myers, who is the executor of her estate. In addition, she had friends, colleagues, and neighbors, too numerous to mention.

There will a private internment service in the near future. A general celebration of her life is planned sometime in the spring, date to be determined. In lieu of flowers, mourners are asked to consider donations to the following organizations:

• The Wounded WarriorProject, https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/;

• The American Diabetes Association, http://www.diabetes.org/?referrer=https://www.bing.com/; and

• The UMUC Foundation (please designate the gift in memory of Mary to the Eiker-Foote Scholarship Fund), http://sites.umuc.edu/impact/how-to-give/.