Marcia Wilkinson Friede

Marcia Wilkinson Friede, 81, beloved wife of John Alan Friede, died at home in her sleep on August 17th, 2019, after enjoying dinner out with her husband the previous evening.  For the past thirty years, Marcia had bravely suffered from unrelenting trigeminal neuropathic pain.  She was born in Buffalo, NY on May 9, 1938, the eldest child of William Feigle Wilkinson and Dorothy Levers Wilkinson.
Marcia grew up in Seaford, Delaware, The Nylon Capital of the World. A precocious child, she was reading at four and won a piano in a competition when she was quite young.  She was a fine scholar and athlete.  Summers were spent swimming in the Nanticoke River after helping to feed 10,000 chickens.  She attended Vassar College and graduated from the University of New Hampshire majoring in Music Composition.  She and John spent the first year of their marriage at Dartmouth College while John completed his undergraduate education. Later, she was a co-chairman for Duplicate Bridge at Harvard Business School while John earned his MBA there.  She briefly taught school before raising with John their three children in NYC and Rye, NY.  An accomplished classical pianist, Marcia also was an avid tennis player, skier, and swimmer, and loved playing Scrabble and reading with her grandchildren.  As the warm, loving heart at the center of her far-flung family, she often gathered them for fun-filled reunions at her home in Rye, NY.  She was active at the Rye Art Center and organized their annual tennis tournaments, often at her home court.  Over four decades, she created with her husband the remarkable Jolika Collection of New Guinea Art, a major component of Oceanic art at the de Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.  Its name is derived from the first two letters of her children’s names, John, Lisa and Karen.

Exotic travels with John included exploring New Guinea to build a context for their Jolika Collection, travelling the Amazon basin, India, and Maya ruins, enjoying wonderful vacations at Maroma in Mexico’s Yucatan, and in Costa Rica, and taking her parents to Egypt.  She especially enjoyed her many trips to Italy, including several weeks at a villa in Tuscany with two of her grandchildren.

In addition to her devoted husband of 60 years, John Alan Friede of Peterborough, NH, Marcia is survived by her two daughters: Lisa Friede and her husband, Christoph Mack of Seattle, WA, and Karen Friede Holden and her husband Mark Turpin of Berkeley, CA.; her son John William Friede of Peterborough; Lisa Beaudoin of Temple, NH, seven grandchildren:  Forrest Beaudoin-Friede, Rowan Beaudoin-Friede, Benson Friede, Lillian Mack, Lucas Mack, Johanna Holden, and Chloe Holden, as well as her brother, William T. Wilkinson and sister, Suzanne W. Bresee.  The last few years of Marcia’s life were spent with her husband in Peterborough, NH, in the care of her wonderful registered nurse, Maria Towers. Marcia’s marriage began and ended in New Hampshire.  She loved the quiet beauty of the state.

A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, August 27th, at 4:00 pm, at The Monadnock Center for History and Culture, 19 Grove Street, Peterborough, NH  03458.  In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Marcia’s memory to the de Young Museum of San Francisco. 

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