Obituaries

Surrounded by her loving family, Maggie Sullivan Tharin, Bay Area native and educator in the San Jose Unified School District, passed away at her Fremont home on March 31st at the age of 65, after a three-and-a-half-year battle with breast cancer.

Maggie was born in San Mateo and received both her elementary and high-school educations at Notre Dame in Belmont. She traveled abroad early in life, and spent her sophomore year of high school in Barcelona, where she became fluent in Spanish and learned to love the people, literature, and general culture of that country. She studied at UC Berkeley during her freshman year of college and formed many of the longest-lasting friendships of her life there. As a college sophomore, she transferred to the newly opened campus of UC Santa Cruz and graduated in 1971. She did further studies in the late 1970s, when she took a leave from teaching and returned to Spain to take courses in language and literature at the University of Salamanca.

She married Frank (Pete) Tharin, Jr., in 1983, and the couple have lived in Fremont since their marriage. In 1986, daughter Mary Elisabeth Sullivan Tharin was born. Maggie never lost her love of traveling, and the family made several trips to Europe together.

She was a devoted teacher, who started her career immediately after graduating from college, specializing in bilingual education. She taught at Lowell and Empire Gardens elementary schools as well as Pioneer high school, and in later years she worked in the District Office as a language education administrator and mentor. Although she was hampered by multiple sclerosis, in retirement she traveled extensively in the US, enjoyed her garden and family, read widely, and enthusiastically attended the San Francisco ballet, symphony, and opera. She was an active volunteer in the parish of the Holy Spirit in Fremont.

A favorite of all the children she inspired, she was especially beloved by her nine nieces and nephews as well as her eight grandnieces and grandnephews, who basked in her affection and relished her sense of humor. She is survived by her husband, Pete Tharin, and her daughter, Mary Tharin (an attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in San Francisco), as well as by her brothers Patrick Sullivan, Daniel Sullivan, and Terrence Sullivan, and her sister, Catherine Gallagher.

There will be a Memorial Mass at the Church of the Holy Spirit, 37588 Fremont Blvd, Fremont, on Saturday, April 11th at noon.

Donations to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul appreciated.