Maria Cameron Northup, fly fisherman, wine connoisseur, Alaska adventurer, competitive sailor, Brown University alum, Stanford MBA, and pianist, died on April 16 from the effects of Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). Maria was the eldest of five children of Robert and Jacquelin Northup. Always a brilliant student, she graduated from Brown University and earned an MBA from Stanford University in 1976, a time when women were scarcely represented in the top echelons of the business world. She started her career in San Francisco where she crewed on sailboats in the San Francisco Bay and from where she went fly fishing in the wilderness of Alaska. Work took her to Chicago and later to Bethesda, Maryland where Maria retired in 2018 as Industry Director of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association.

Appropriately, she was preparing for a sailing adventure in the Aegean Sea when she met the love of her life, Ron Sears in a bar in the Plaka in Athens. They crewed together on a sailboat down the coast of Greece. A year later, 1994, they married in Chicago. Maria was the ultimate Aunt for her many nieces and nephews. With a desire to share their love, Maria and Ron initiated the process of adoption of a young Chinese child. In 1998, they travelled to Hefei, People’s Republic of China, to meet a girl who would become Lucy Sears. Lucy immediately became the joy of their lives. Maria’s focus on family was intensified in the years raising Lucy in “The Mustard Palace,” their home on Burling Street in Chicago, and later in their home on Wakefield Road in Bethesda.

Maria was a world traveler. She rode an elephant in Pakistan; celebrated every fifth birthday in Paris starting in 1981 with her sister Anne D; sang in English cathedrals with the Brown University chorus; adopted Lucy in China; toured wine vineyards in Alsace-Lorraine; honeymooned in Venice with gondola rides with Ron; traversed the Grand Canyon with Ron and Lucy; and cavorted with Ron in Cordova, Spain.

Maria loved a good party. She hosted legendary Christmas gatherings for friends and family in the Mustard Palace. The Tuxedo Club of Champaign-Urbana hosted a black-tie event for her upon her move to Illinois.

Maria’s nieces and nephews received monogrammed towels when they went off to college. Ron still uses the towels that Maria gave to him. Maria possessed an old-fashioned sense of propriety, graciousness, generosity, and loyalty. She loved her family and her lifetime friends

Eileen Kupersmith (Brown University roommate), Gail Longmore (her Chicago partner-in-crime) and “Lizbe” Duffett (Stanford MBA classmate).

Her strong will and determination were never more evident celebrating Christmas last December with Lucy and Ron when she willed her failing body to play Good King Wenceslas, the traditional family Christmas song.

Her sisters Anne D Hedeman and Cathy Charles, her brother David Northup, her late brother Bob’s wife Ginny Northup, and Ron’s sister Cynde Sears joined Ron and Lucy on Maria’s last days. Her legacy continues in the lives of Ron and Lucy.

Maria died 10 days before her 75th birthday. The family will celebrate Maria on her birthday, April 26, with a gathering at her Bethesda Home sharing a French wine that the wine connoisseur in Maria would have appreciated.

Donations in Maria’s memory may be made to Casey House hospice that thoughtfully cared for Maria in her final days: Https://montgomeryhospice.org…  

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