Mary G. Ulrich

Mary Grace Blumer Ulrich, 79, of Green Valley, AZ, formally of Sioux City passed away Wednesday, July 27, 2016.

Services will be held at 11:00 A.M. Thursday, August 4, 2016 at Meyer Brothers Morningside Chapel with Reverend Roger Madden officiating. Visitation will be Wednesday, August 3, 2016 from 4-8 P.M. with the family present from 6-8 P.M. at the funeral home. Burial will be at Memorial Park Cemetery in Sioux City, IA.

Mary Grace was born July 26, 1937 at home on a farm in Perkins, OK. She was the first child of Bert B. Blumer and Adella Kirby Blumer. As a toddler she moved with her parents to a farm south of Ponca City, OK, in 1938.

Formal education was received at the Ponca City Schools from Jefferson Elementary through Ponca High School, graduating in the class of 1955. Her earliest religion training was received early in the Methodist Church in Marland, OK. She participated in youth program activities in the Evangelical United Brethren Church (now Albright United Methodist) in Ponca City.

After high school she graduated from Westmar College in Le Mars, IA, in 1959, having earned a B.S. in Education-Home Economics-Vocational-Certified. In college she met a fellow student M. Gene Ulrich who became her husband on August 23, 1958 at the E.U.B. in Ponca City. They celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary in 2015. Mary took graduate studies at the University of South Dakota and Oklahoma State University.

While Gene worked on his doctorate at South Illinois University, Mary completed her Master’s Degree at S.I.U. Mary taught for 33 years, teaching in high school, junior high, elementary, and college.

Mary developed a keen interest in travel, starting when she helped Gene by planning for nutritious meals and organizing student prepared meals on Gene’s 45-day Field Biology courses. She traveled with him and students from high school and college, as these courses took them through most of the United States. She loved traveling with Gene in his work in the United States and as far away as the Philippines and Thailand.

While living in the Philippines she also assisted other professors in the Home Economics Department at Silliman University. Mary had traveled to 123 countries and went around the world on three different occasions. She loved Hawaii and visited nearly all of the islands several times. She always studied the foods as well as clothing and textiles in the different cultures she encountered and used the information in her teaching.

After retirement, Mary used her sewing abilities in church mission projects in Sioux City, IA and in the United Methodist Church in Green Valley, AZ. She was an active member in Retired Teachers Organization, P.E.O., and the Roundtable.

Mary is survived by her loving husband of 57 years M. Gene Ulrich of Green Valley, AZ; brother Bert F. Blumer and wife Elizabeth of Stillwater, OK, sister Nancy Blumer Anderson and husband Harry of East Bernard, TX, niece Sara Blumer Hartley and husband Ben of Goodyear, AZ, nephew Zachary Blumer and wife Kimberly; great niece and nephew Makena Blumer and Colton Blumer of Stillwater, OK.