May 13, 1930 – December 30, 2012

It is with sadness that we announce that Margot Loveland passed away on December 30, 2012. Margot beat cancer for 17 years. After her beloved husband, Dick, passed away on December 8, Margot told her son that she was sorry, but she would follow shortly. Though she let cancer take her, she went on her own terms, as always.

Margot was born to Howard and Elizabeth Gilbert on May 13, 1930, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She was the third, and only daughter, of five children. She faced the challenge of growing up with four boys and sharing her room with her grandmother, Kate, with the pluck and determination that would carry her through the rest of her life.

Margot spent her childhood and young adulthood in Cranford, New Jersey. At age 12, during an air raid drill, she met her lifelong dear friend, Audrey (Whittier) Scannell. 70 years later, Audrey was at Margot’s side for many hours a day, holding her hand and comforting her in her final days. We cannot express enough our love and thanks to Audrey for her love and kindness to Margot.

Margot’s father passed away when she was 17. After graduating from high school, Margot went to work in New York City for the next five years, helping support her mother and grandmother.

In high school, Margot met a handsome red-head named Dick Loveland. They were married on June 14, 1952, shortly before Dick was called to duty in Korea. They spent the next 60 years in what both said was the happiest marriage that anyone could have.

A bit after Dick returned from Korea, Margot asked him: “do you think someone is going to call you and offer you a job?” It always angered her that, later the same day, Dick received a call offering him an interview as a history teacher at Avon Old Farms in Connecticut. After their first year there, Margot became the librarian at the school, which position she held until the birth of her son, Ward, to whom she was the best and most kind mother.

The family moved next to Buffalo, New York, where Dick was Assistant Headmaster at Buffalo Seminary. In 1963, Dick took the job as Dean at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. After Washington, the family settled in Montclair, New Jersey, where Dick was Headmaster of The Kimberley School for nine years. In 1973, Dick took a job at Crystal Springs School for Girls in Hillsborough, California, and the family moved to Atherton, a home that Margot loved.

Margot worked hard to better the school. In the early years, when funds were scarce, Margot was a frequent substitute teacher. She was Dick’s ever-present companion through both the difficult and the wonderful times at the school.

Margot was also a teacher in the kindergarten at Crystal. Eventually, several of those students (some of whom were boys) would graduate from the renamed and coeducational Crystal Springs Uplands School. She was always so proud of CSUS, and she loved that her grandson, Chris, has been in several plays on the Bovet Auditorium stage that her husband helped design and raised the funds to build.

Margot and Dick retired to Oregon in 1991, living in Black Butte Ranch, Bend and finally Medford.

Along the way through their lives, Margot and Dick made so many wonderful friends. Margot received an outpouring of support following Dick’s passing, and she only regrets that she could not respond to all of them.

Margot is predeceased by her husband, Dick, and her brothers Roy and Robert. She is survived by her brothers, Howard (Betty) Gilbert and John (Sally) Gilbert; her son, Ward; her daughter-in-law, Patricia; and her grandson, Chris, CSUS ’17. Pursuant to her request, there will be no memorial service. Any gifts in her memory should be made to the Richard Loveland Foundation at Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough, CA.