Virginia H Guidi

Born on June 4, 1931, in Kansas City, Missouri, Virginia spent most of her childhood in Redford Township outside Detroit, where her parents moved when she was four years old. Her father, Arthur Howe, was a bookkeeper by training while her mother Garnet Howe was a home maker. An only child, Virginia demonstrated an early aptitude in school. She graduated in 1949 from Redford Union High School and was the only woman from her graduating class to attend four-year university.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in history from Wayne State University and then attended University of Michigan where she earned a master’s degree in library science. Seeking a change of location, she moved to California where she worked for Hughes Aircraft Corporation and then The Rand Corporation in their Top-Secret documents section. She often mentioned getting calls from well-known people such as Henry Kissinger and Daniel Ellsberg requesting various information and research. After a while her sense of adventure kicked in and once again, she sought a change of location. She ended up moving to Hawaii where she took on the role of head reference librarian for the state.

While there, she met an Italian immigrant who had joined the U.S. Army and was stationed in Hawaii at the time. They hit it off and after dating for over a year he asked her to marry him. However, her sense of adventure was not satisfied so she declined and instead decided to take the trip of a lifetime and literally travel around the world. In 1961, as a single woman, she embarked on a six-month trip. She visited numerous countries, but her favorite was by far India. For decades after that trip, she enjoyed talking about it and sharing slides of her journeys to anyone who was interested.

Upon returning to Hawaii that Italian immigrant was still there. Now a civilian but still with the Army, he asked her again to marry him. In 1963 she accompanied him to Washington D.C. which was his next assignment location and married Salvy Guidi the man she would spend the next 40 years with.

They had a good, long life in Alexandria, Virginia which is where they lived until retiring to Sun City, Arizona. After her husband Salvy passed, she moved to California to be close to her only son.

In her later years, her love of history extended to family. Virginia became quite a genealogist. She traced the family back centuries with one direct line going as far back as Charlemagne. After considerable research she proved direct ancestry on both sides of the American Civil War, earned membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), and tied our direct family line to some of the earliest settlers of the United States going back to the early 1600’s.

A woman of great talent, intellect, and wit, she was always interested in learning about all thing’s science, nature, and history. She read constantly and was always up to date on current events. She enjoyed engaging with her son, grandchildren, and other family members on the events of the day. She also had an amazing way with animals being able to coax wild squirls, birds and rabbits to trust her and eat out of her hand.

Virginia was preceded in death by her parents Arthur and Garnett Howe as well as her husband Salvy Guidi. She leaves behind her son Mark, daughter-in-law Mayuko and two grandchildren Maya and Enzo who will miss her dearly.