Mary Ann’s Story

Mary Ann grew up on a small farm in Raleigh Hills with her two sisters, her beloved grandfather Bapa, and a bunch of barn animals. She was the captain of the rally squad and a state speech competitor at Beaverton High School. At the University of Oregon, Mary Ann was the social chair at the Alpha Phis, where she planned parties, laughed and danced with friends. Mary Ann married her high school sweetheart, Mike McGinley, and they became the parents of three busy children. 

Mary Ann was actively involved with the Portland Society for Calligraphy, volunteering as a workshops coordinator 2005-2011 and then serving as president 2011-2013. She was a speaker at national calligraphy conferences, and her work was published in multiple magazines and books. She was the proud proprietor of Mary Ann’s, an art and calligraphy boutique in Portland’s Multnomah Village, and she made many cards over the years for family and friends. 

She lived her mantra, “To have a friend you must be a friend,” to the fullest, as her social network, which reached far beyond Portland, can attest.  

She made friends everywhere she went and was renowned for her giant, generous heart.

Mary Ann passed away at her home in Lake Oswego on July 16, 2014, surrounded by the loving family that was the joy of her rich, full life. She approached her final days with grace and dignity and courage, literally laughing in the face of mortality, singing and smiling until the very end. It was a truly remarkable thing to see.

The Society for Calligraphy of Southern California shared this on their website:

“Mary Ann David was a yearly presence at Letters California Style from the beginning. She was a great ambassador for us and talked about Letters everywhere she went, which was a lot of places! Also, she was at every international conference … and that is where a lot of our members knew her. It’s no accident that her initials were MAD. She was a madcap, energetic, fascinating person. A quote from her official obituary says, “Mary Ann practiced friendship as if it were an artform.” Her decades-long impact on the calligraphic world was as much from her ability to bring people together as it was from her art. She introduced people to each other, and they would become lifelong friends. She had a laser-like focus on details about you that she would remember years later, and she would use that information to connect you with others. Her infectious enthusiasm kept people at ease and increased their confidence. She wasn’t able to attend Letters California Style in 2014 but came up for one morning with her sister just to visit us and give out little valentine mementos. She looked me hard in the eye as we talked, and later I realized that she knew it was the last time she would see me. There are many voids in my life from friends passing in the last few years. Mary Ann’s passing leaves a hole in my life–in Portland, in Palm Springs, at Letters, and in the calligraphic world.” – C.C. Sadler.