Obituary: Anne Fuller

Grandmother, former Scripps College dean of faculty, professor, lover of literature

Anne Fuller died in the morning hours of May 22 at the age of 89.

She is survived by her brother, Thomas Havens; daughter, Kate Niles; son, Peter Fuller; and grandchildren, Sarah Fuller, Nicholas Fuller and Christopher Niles.

Anne was born in 1932 in Pomona, and lived her first four years in nearby Claremont, where her father, Paul Havens, taught literature at Scripps College. In 1936, Paul moved his family to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where he had accepted a post as president of Wilson College.

After graduating magna cum laude with a BA in English literature from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in 1953, she was awarded a Fulbright grant and so boarded a ship bound for Oxford, England. There she earned the equivalent of an MA in English language and literature from Oxford’s Somerville College. She then completed a PhD in English language and literature in 1958 at Yale University.

She taught for two years at her alma mater, Mount Holyoke, then accepted a comparable position at Pomona College, in Claremont, returning thus to her birthplace. She met PhD chemist Martin Fuller at Pomona, and the two were married at St. Ambrose Episcopal Church in Claremont on June 17, 1961. Children Kate and Peter followed soon after in 1962 and 1963.

She then taught at the University of Florida, The University of Denver, Prescott College in Arizona, The Colorado Rocky Mountain Prep School, and again at the University of Denver

In 1973, she was offered and accepted the dean of faculty position at Scripps College. She later worked at Claremont Graduate University as assistant to the president, then moved to Sherman, Texas, where she took on the dean of faculty role at Austin College.

She was a gifted teacher who read voraciously and loved to learn. She instilled in her students a deep respect for English and other languages and cultures and their respective histories, as well as a love of Chaucer and other medieval literature, and Old English, including “Beowulf.”

In 1996, the couple retired to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Martin died in 2007, and in 2014, she moved to La Vida Llena Life Plan Community, where she led an active life. She swam every morning well into her eighties, and continued to involve herself in book clubs and to share her love of literature and learning with her friends and neighbors. She will be missed by many.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in her honor to the American Cancer Society at https://www.cancer.org.

A memorial service will be held at 6:30 p.m. MDT Friday, June 11 at Saint Thomas of Canterbury Episcopal Church, 425 University Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106. To livestream the service, search the St. Thomas of Canterbury Episcopal Church Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CanterburyABQ, and “like” the page in order to view.

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