Mary Belle Ratcliff

Mary Belle Ratcliff, of Lake Oswego, Oregon, passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, in Oregon City, Oregon, due to complications resulting from a medical emergency suffered earlier in the day at her home.

Originally from Seattle, Washington, Mary's father and mother moved to Bogotá, Colombia with their first daughter, Cheryl, for Jack’s work as an exploration geologist in the oil and gas industry. Mary was born in Bogotá on January 8, 1949. The family relocated to the U.S. when Mary was 3 years old, initially to Glendive, Montana, then Casper, Wyoming, followed by several other moves due to her dad’s job while she was growing up, so she attended schools in four different cities through her K-12 years, finally graduating with honors from Arapahoe High School in Littleton, Colorado (in an area now incorporated as Centennial). Mary excelled in school and was ever a prolific reader with a love of books and learning that she enjoyed sharing with others with boosts of excitement. She also had an interest in drama and theater, and after relocating to California with her family as a young adult, she met her late husband James Ratcliff, a stage actor, who passed away at a young age in 1975. 

By the late 1970s, Mary’s keen math skills led to her first career position in hardware engineering in Santa Cruz, California. From there and while concurrently earning her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees and raising her son, Anthony, she entered a long career in software engineering and development, holding successive positions as an engineer and designer for small and large companies in Santa Clara and Palo Alto, California, and in Portland, Oregon, where she lived since 1995. Mary graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University, the Jesuit University in Santa Clara, in 1983, followed by her Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1988. Her career included hardware engineering at Perkin Elmer and software engineering and design at Intel, Xidak, Informix, and IBM in California and Oregon. She retired from IBM in 2011, where she had been a Senior Software Manager since 2003.

After retiring, Mary spent much of her time volunteering for several non-profit organizations in Portland and Lake Oswego, Oregon, working on environmental and social issues she was passionate about. Among these, she had a strong interest in addressing climate change through advancing clean energy solutions and promoting natural climate solutions that protect and heal the environment both in her own life and for her community. Some of the organizations that benefitted from her dedicated service, contributions, and zeal include the Lake Oswego Sustainability Network, for which she was a founding board member, the Oswego Lake Watershed Council, the Tryon Creek Watershed Council, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Audubon Society of Portland where she was the co-chair for the Wild Arts Festival Book Fair, and Willamette Women Democrats. 

Mary was an avid birder and volunteered as a guide for Portland Audubon, regularly leading people on birding adventures in and around the Portland-Vancouver area and sometimes farther afield such as the Oregon Coast or destination birding spots in eastern Oregon like the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. She enthusiastically participated every year in Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count and Birdathon fundraiser events. Over three decades, Mary’s interest in birds and birding took her on trips across the U.S. and abroad, allowing her to record an impressive list of bird sightings. To prepare for those trips, Mary spent hours scouring stacks of books on regional birds, studying photos and information on birds she might catch a glimpse of or have opportunity to take time to observe and photograph, and listening to recordings of bird sounds and songs she should be alert to while out and about. About those sounds, in one dispatch from Perth, Western Australia in 2019, Mary wrote: “Off birding at 5am to see if we can see the skulking Western Scrub-bird, Western Bristlebird and Western Whipbird. We heard them yesterday, but they did not show themselves.” Of course, before departing for that trip, as for others, she studied and listened to prepare for seeing (or hearing) birds she might encounter only once in her lifetime. As well as becoming a learned and respected birder among her peers, Mary honed her photography skills and most times returned home with remarkable photos of birds and other wildlife she had seen. 

Through birding, volunteer work, and lifelong learning, Mary thrived on working to make a difference. And she thrived on the friendships developed over the years with her professional colleagues, other volunteers, and community leaders, and with many life-long friends who were like family to her. Mary had a profound positive influence on those around her and those who had come to rely on her to get things done. She was always there to help others in need or in search for balance, without any expectation for reciprocity. Mary, indeed, left a legacy of meaningful impacts in the communities where she worked and lived and truly sought to make the world a better place. Mary was loved dearly and is greatly missed by her family and friends.

Preceded in death by her late husband James and her parents Jack and Helen (Bell) Mills, Mary is survived by her son, Anthony Ratcliff, and her three sisters, Cheryl Lewis, Anne Wellington and Denise Mills. Memorial donations may be made to Bird Alliance of Oregon (formerly Portland Audubon; https://birdallianceoregon.org/ways-to-give/donate-today/), the Lake Oswego Sustainability Network (https://losn.org/donate/), or Oregon Public Broadcasting (https://give.opb.org/opb/).