Margaret Ann (Gunderson) Shupe

November 16, 1931 – November 6, 2024

Margaret Ann (Gunderson) Shupe, died on November 6, 2024, 10 days before her 93rd birthday. A native of Colorado, she lived her final six years in Portland, Maine, where she had come to live near her son and daughter-in-law.

Born November 16, 1931, in Brighton, Colorado, she was the second of Walter and Dorothy Gunderson’s six children. Her childhood was spent happily in small Eastern Colorado towns, and on the family ranch near Potter, Nebraska. Daughter of hard-working parents, a chiropractor and a school teacher, she was often responsible for the care of her four younger siblings as her older sister helped her mother with housekeeping chores. Her siblings often said that it was Margaret who raised them, and kept them safe.

She attended public schools in Nebraska and Colorado, graduated from Longmont, Colorado High School in 1949, and earned her Associate Arts degree at Graceland College in Iowa in 1951, where she was successfully wooed by David Shupe, whom she married in 1953. They would be married until his death in 2010. Prior to her marriage, as David completed his degree in Civil Engineering, she taught first and second grades (simultaneously) in Elsie, Nebraska, and Niwot, Colorado. Several of her students remained in contact with her for the rest of her life, and credited her with instilling a life-long love of learning, and in one case, a career in public school teaching. Margaret completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974 at the University of Northern Colorado.

With David, she moved to Burbank, California, where they had a daughter, Elizabeth, before moving back to Colorado as David began his career in Civil Engineering. A son, Paul and a daughter Alyson were born in Boulder, Colorado and the family lived also in Loveland, and Greeley. She moved to Maine in 2018.

Her children remember her as a loving mother, a strong moral guide, and an advocate for their education. She was always ready to read a book to them, and to welcome their friends into the family home, which was often filled with neighborhood children. She taught her children to be honest, to accept responsibility for their actions, and to be mindful of and to care for the needs of others, especially those who could not care for themselves.

A life-long member of the Community of Christ Church, Margaret taught Sunday School, played the organ, and, in her later years, became ordained and served as pastor of the Greeley Congregation for more than 15 years. She had natural gifts for collaborative leadership, and for helping others to develop and to share their talents with the congregation. Always ecumenical in outlook, and curious about and respectful of the beliefs and life experience of others, she was active in Church Women United, Greeley Interfaith, and many multi-faith movements for justice and peace. A dedicated pacifist, quotations from Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela adorned her walls and inspired and guided her.

She was blessed with four grandchildren, Nate and Sam Shupe, and Clarke and Langston Shupe-Diggs, who celebrate her presence in their lives as an inspiration. She was a good listener, always eager to learn about their lives and interests, and supportive of their endeavors, no matter what.

Margaret was courageous in life, twice healing from cancer, and, when finally diagnosed after years of suffering, learning how to live with chronic depression. In her later years she played Mexican Train dominoes with friends, worked jigsaw puzzles, returned to a childhood love of coloring, and participated in and led book discussion groups to the very last days of her life. Taught to appreciate the game by her father, she was a lifelong baseball fan and often could be found simultaneously watching her adopted Boston Red Sox on the TV, and her beloved Colorado Rockies on her computer screen.

Proud to have lived longer than anyone in her family, she was nevertheless ready to die, and when illness and injury came at last, she died peacefully, faithfully, and without regret.

She is survived by her children, Elizabeth, Paul and Alyson Shupe, daughter-in-law MaryAnn Shupe, son-in-law Steve Shelley, grandchildren Nate and Sam, Clarke and Langston, a sister Carol Goddard of Colorado, a brother, Robert and sister-in-law Trudi of Hawaii, and numerous beloved nephews and nieces. She was predeceased by her siblings Mary Cash, Walter Gunderson, Jr., and David Gunderson, as well as beloved sons-in-law Charles MacKenzie, and Gregory Diggs.

Burial will be private, as will an online memorial service. In lieu of flowers, contributions are encouraged to Outreach International (Outreach-International.org) or the Southern Poverty Law Center (splcenter.org).  

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