Mary Cooley Obituary

Mary Danchuk Cooley

April 23, 1940 - July 19, 2023

It's not often that someone such as this passes this way. Mary Louise Shafer Bowers Danchuk Cooley is such a one. She was industrious, hardworking, smart, organized, and deeply caring and will be sorely missed by her husband, Jim. She was a true renaissance woman. She was an accountant, computer programmer, department head, hospital CFO, vintner, graphologist, bee keeper, real estate investor, Worthy Matron of the Eastern Star, and, finally, a holder of an MS degree in BlockChain and Crypto Currency earned at the ripe old age of 79.

She and Jim had only been back together for three years before congestive heart failure took her from us. Mary and Jim were deeply in love in the 1969-1971 time frame, but circumstances worked against a long-term relationship at that point. Even though they'd been apart for almost 50 years, they still loved each other and were able to magically reconnect.

Mary was born April 23, 1940, in Findlay, the child of Marion and Louise Shafer. She had one brother, Jim, who preceded her in death. Mary completed two full years at Bowling Green State University before moving to Los Angeles, California, with her new husband, Glen, who enrolled in the USC optometry school. Mary worked at a company which selected her and two other women to be the first female computer programmers at the company. While working, she managed to complete her undergraduate degree at Cal State LA. In the next several years, Mary and her husband divorced and she parlayed her computer skills into more important jobs ultimately becoming a department head at Riverside County General Hospital. It is also during these years, specifically 1969-1971, that she met Jim. When things didn't work out with Jim, she married David Danchuk and eventually moved to Point Arena, California, where she lived until David died in 2009. She then moved permanently to Reno where she and Jim ultimately bought a house together and married.

Her ashes will be buried at Maple Grove Cemetery, Findlay.