A San Benito High School teacher who dedicated her life to
literature and students will be remembered by faculty, students and
the community Nov. 18 at 4 p.m.
SBHS is holding a memorial for Marian Fields, an English teacher
who died Oct. 16 from complications from ovarian cancer and
chemotherapy.
A San Benito High School teacher who dedicated her life to literature and students will be remembered by faculty, students and the community Nov. 18 at 4 p.m.
SBHS is holding a memorial for Marian Fields, an English teacher who died Oct. 16 from complications from ovarian cancer and chemotherapy.
The service will be held, fittingly, in the school’s library, said Jill Clark-Kunich, an English teacher at SBHS and friend of Fields.
“The school and students were Marian’s life,” she said. “We felt the library was an appropriate place for us to celebrate her life. The school pretty much was the center of her world.”
About five teachers and students – past and present – will speak at the memorial. Also, a student and teacher will perform a musical number. Pastor Don Murray of the Hollister Christian Fellowship will preside. Murray used to teach at SBHS.
Clark-Kunich and former English teacher Jim Allen will read “Voices of Literature” – pieces of literature Fields taught in her classes.
Also, attendees can sign a book of their memories of Fields to give to her sister and mother.
A memorial service was held Nov. 6 at Stanford Medical Center, where Fields died. Community members still wanted to have a service in Hollister.
“(We wanted one here) because we’re kinda selfish – this is for us,” Clark-Kunich said. “Stanford is not where her students were, it’s not where her teachers and friends were.”
For almost 20 years, Fields taught English to sophomores and seniors at SBHS. And, for almost five years, Fields fought the effects of ovarian cancer and chemotherapy until she died two months shy of her 55th birthday.
After leaving SBHS, Fields moved in with her mother and sister – both of whom she helped care for – in San Jose. After a recent setback, Fields was checked into Stanford Medical Center.
Memorial donations may be mailed to either Marian Fields Scholarship, care of San Benito High School, 1220 Monterey St., Hollister, Calif., 95023, or the Gynecologic Cancer Fund, attention Nelson Teng MD/PhD, Stanford Gynecologic Oncology, 300 Pasteur Dr., Room HH333, Stanford, Calif., 94305-5317.
For more information on the memorial service, call SBHS at 637-5831.
