“Farm Girl,” “Blue Eyes,” “Honda” and “Witchy Poo” were some of the playful names Vonda was given throughout her life. She accepted and embraced them all with her characteristic humor and lightheartedness as was her nature.

Vonda was born in New Sweden, Idaho, just outside of Idaho Falls, on May 7th, 1933. The youngest of five siblings, the family lived on the “District Ranch” where her father managed water use for local farms. Although The Depression had brought difficult times on the farm, there was always food which Vonda remembered being graciously shared by her mother when others showed up hungry. That time instilled a lifelong frugality and generosity that Vonda was known for.

During her high school years, she did her best to help out on the farm, even being featured in the local paper driving a tractor though she later recounted her brothers eventually “fired her” as she was never able to master plowing straight rows.

Vonda went on to the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho where she met her future husband, J. Daniel “Dan” Tibbitts on her first college date. They didn’t date again until their Senior year as they both participated in an active Greek social life in the intervening years. Vonda always liked to joke that Dan was her first and last date in college.

After earning her degree in Laboratory Technology, she moved to San Francisco, a place she had visited and fell in love with. Her first professional job was in the Lab at Letterman Army Hospital on the Presidio of San Francisco. She lived in an apartment nearby on Lombard St with a few roommates, their only furniture a bar made by her father at her request.

The bustling and exciting city was a perfect place for her to develop her love of Jazz-–in particular, Ella Fitzgerald, Chris Conner and Chet Baker.

When Dan returned from Korea completing his two-year tour of duty, he proposed. The couple wed in Idaho Falls, ID and moved to Centralia, WA for Dan to follow in his family’s business. After San Francisco, it didn’t take long for the new ‘city kids’ to grow bored in the small, quiet town of Centralia. They packed up and moved to San Jose, CA. While in San Jose, their daughter, Kristen, was born. Dan had joined the local brokerage firm of Dean Witter and was asked to help open the new Dean Witter office in Monterey. The little family of three moved to a small cottage on 12th & Dolores in Carmel. Soon, they welcomed their son, Geoffrey.

Vonda was known for her goofy sense of humor. Always the first to don a costume, her most memorable was the Halloween costume she wore one year while working in the Lab at the Army Clinic on the Presidio of Monterey. As the self-described “Pee Queen,” she was draped in vials containing a suspicious ‘yellow’ liquid. To the horror of any who dared ask, she would grab one, pop off the cap, and toss it back, declaring it quite “tasty and very good for you!” (The questionable liquid was actually diluted lemonade.)

Vonda was also an avid skier. First on the hill and last off, stuffing her pockets with granola bars so she wouldn’t have to stop for lunch. Once, while ‘exploring’ a new run with her dear friend, Charlene Hengesh, they went off trail, got lost, and ultimately found themselves at the edge of a frozen lake. They decided to traverse across the lake to a road they saw on the other side hoping the ice was thick enough to support their weight and that they would be able to get a ride back to the ski hill. Unlike most lost skier stories, it was the kids in the ski patrol office at the end of the day frantically looking for their mothers. The moms eventually got a ride back to the ski hill. Given nothing tragic happened, Vonda’s comment was that they’d had a “great adventure”!

Vonda instilled in Kristen and Geof her deep love for and intense connection to Nature. She introduced them to backpacking, long hikes and tidepooling. She climbed the back of Half Dome twice, the second time at 62 with her daughter, Kristen, who says she wouldn’t have made it down if she hadn’t told herself that her mother had already climbed it once and was right behind her! Vonda was a daily fixture on the trails of the Flanders/Mission Trail Nature Preserve, her beloved “forest”, until her death. As an original “Ecologist,” Vonda embraced the credo of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” to the extent she dried paper towels to reuse.

In all, Vonda embraced Life with unparalleled kindness, generosity and humor. She enjoyed every experience as if it was the first and lived her adopted motto, “There are No Big Deals.” However, to her immediate and extended family and her many, many friends, Vonda was truly a very “Big Deal”. She will be profoundly missed.

Vonda leaves behind her husband of 67 years, Dan; her two children, Kristen (Baldo) and Geof (Molly); four grandchildren: Jackson, Cole, Niko and Viggo, her “Little Dog,” Fuzzy, as well as loving caregivers, Umesh, Vanessa and Zouhair.

Memorial Keepers (1)

Vonda Marie Jackson Tibbits