Marion Elizabeth Houpt, who advocated for the rights of women and senior citizens and at age 75 earned a college degree, died Sept. 23. She was 86.
She died of natural causes, family members said.
Houpt was a board member and chairman of the Area 4 Agency on Aging Advisory Council and a commissioner of the Sacramento County Adult and Aging Commission.
Deanna Lea, executive director of the Area 4 Agency on Aging, said Houpt was active on the council for at least 12 years. She chaired the council in the mid- to late-'90s, Lea said.
"She made things work by her personality," Lea said. "She never offended anyone. She was an advocate. She wanted seniors to receive their fair share."
Marion Houpt began a 40-year career with the Sacramento Army Depot as a secretary and rose to become an assistant director, said her son Jim Houpt.
"She really had to fight for her promotion at the Army Depot," said daughter-in-law Leslie Houpt.
She also fought for other women's rights, her son said.
In 1990, Houpt ran for the Southgate Recreation and Park District board to protest the board's move to increase fees without taxpayers' approval and "to change things," said Jim Houpt.
According to a 1972 Bee article, she chaired the veterans' preference committee of the Sacramento Federal Women's Program Council, which represented 6,000 Sacramento-area women.
Jim Houpt described his mother as "a person who believed in an honest day's work" and taught that outlook to her three children.
In the early 1990s, Marion Houpt retired from the Army Depot and decided to pursue one of her lifelong dreams: earning a college degree, Jim Houpt said. She majored in history and minored in German at California State University, Sacramento. She was 75 when she earned a bachelor's degree and graduated magna cum laude.
Her interest in history was deeply rooted in her life experiences, said her daughter, Barbara Kent.
Mrs. Houpt was born in 1922 in Fort Sheridan, Ill., the only child of a WWI soldier and a war bride.
After graduating from high school, she enrolled in business college to learn secretarial skills and found a job in New York City as a legal secretary.
In 1942, she married John William Houpt, a career soldier. A mistake by the military sent the family to Berlin, where they were caught in the harrowing Berlin airlift during a storm, her children said.
When her husband was assigned to Nuremberg, she worked for the Army transcribing shorthand reports of the Nuremberg war crimes trials.
After separating from her husband, she moved in 1951 to Sacramento, where she raised her three children with the help of her mother.
Kent said Mrs. Houpt was an avid reader, played the piano well, took delight in the opera and traveled extensively to Europe and Asia, especially in her retirement years.
She also volunteered in church and at WEAVE and taught typing to the blind.
Call The Bee's Chelsea Phua, (916) 321-1132. Bee Researcher Pete Basofin contributed to this report.
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