Lynn Andrews Gibson

Lynn Andrews Gibson, 59, Born December 18, 1956, in Wichita, Kansas to Keith “Andy” Andrews and Ione Lacy Andrews. Lynn died Tuesday, February 16, 2016 of pneumonia, a complication of her multiple sclerosis. Lynn moved to a rural homestead, moving into town about five years old. She told tales of bareback riding a horse, being tossed over a fence, eating dinner from fish caught by her father from their ag. pond, collecting and eating eggs from their own chickens, a cow "Bessie the heifer, the queen of all the cows. On weekdays she gave pasteurized, on weekends gave homogenized.", off a dirt road where you'd go out to watch a car drive by, their dog unused to traffic hit and killed by a passing car. Later they moved to town to live in the basement of the unfinished house her father was building, cold and damp when it rained. Her "grandma Lacy" owned a restaurant in Waterville, Kansas where she was also the cook. At a summer visit Lynn and Jennifer would go to the pool down the street on those hot dusty summer days. At the restaurant they could have anything they wanted, cokes and burgers, homemade cinnamon twists. If full she might ditch her food behind the bench if she didn't feel like finishing it. Their dad and later mom, too, worked for Boeing. When Boeing needed dad in Cape Canaveral, Florida they moved there; it was near where her dad was raised, relatives nearby, oranges, too. She saw a giant Saturn rocket, blast off, went swimming in the warm ocean at the nearby white sand beach, and more. When Boeing needed dad in Washington state they moved again, camping on the way, staying in a campground until a new house was available. That was a time of great disruption, but it was also a time of adventure. In Marysville, WA she went to Pilchuck High School. Here Mr. Ibia, challenged Lynn to compete with the other top performing students, further developing her competitive nature and love of mathematics. I know that she was shocked to ever get a grade lower than an A. She worked at Jack-In-the-Box. and played the French Horn in the band. She loved playing the piano and accompanied musicals at school. She had thought she would become a professional musician, but learned she wouldn't be able because she had MS at 17. Her life took a sharp turn after that. She decided that Physics could let her use her great math skills. She went to Udub (UW) as a physics major. When it came to the labs for physics she did them alone because if she did it with a boy he'd be condescending and not let her do it, too, and she wanted to learn that stuff. Later she got a job setting up the physics lab demonstrations for the professor. She was hot getting more practical understanding of mechanics, optics, electromagnetism, and so on, with that job. To get a better physics education she moved to UC Berkeley. In her junior year she entered a special internship at Lawrence Berkeley Lab as a student working on a superconducting magnet which was to be used on a high energy experiment SLAC. She met me, George Gibson, while working there. After graduation she moved to Los Angeles to work for Hughes Aircraft. Lynn and George established a connection when Lynn came back to visit Ann Brady in Berkeley. She didn't like working on military projects and decided to move back to Berkeley. She got a job at a vapor deposition company (Skyscraper windows), Aerco Temescal. At that time she married George Gibson, December 18, 1983, in Oakland, California. After Aerco went into receivership she went to work at Dalmo Victor Company, a military radar company, in Belmont California. She commuted there while still living in Berkeley for a year or so, but didn't find the work satisfying. She returned to UC Berkeley as an Electronics Engineering major working on transistor modeling with hopes of a nonmilitary job up ahead. It was a very difficult course of study as she had to catch up on all the undergraduate work in engineering while taking masters courses, and working as an RA on an integrated circuit modeling program, working on her master's thesis in that area. She received her Master’s Degree May, 21, 1986. When she graduated she was also pregnant with son Rob. She looked for work in the Bay Area, during an industry turndown; nobody was hiring. She ended up looking in other places for work, so when she was offered a job at Hewlett Packard in Corvallis, Oregon she was thrilled. She moved her family to Corvallis in January of 1987 to work at HP on thermal inkjet pens for printers, the first really modern computer printheads on Kukla project. She worked at HP Corvallis in various positions until her retirement in June of 1997 due to her disability from MS; she became legally blind, and progressively paralyzed. At the same time she and George raised a wonderful family together, managing her difficulties with determination. In college at OSU both boys have excelled in Computer Science, taking encouragement from Lynn to tackle these courses just as she did years before. Despite challenges at work she performed very well getting an award August 5th 1997 for her achievements in the Ink Jet Business Unit, IJBU, in manufacturing. Her husband George left HP with the TAA layoffs in 2005. This worked to their benefit as George retired to stay home to care for her. They helped their kids with school and leading a good life. In 2012 she got pneumonia, which was very hard to recover from, but recover she did. Since that time Lynn and George have been inseparable, except for a few hours a day with caregivers during the week. They went to Newport most weekends to eat at the Chowder Bowl, Yuzen (Seal Rock) and Georgie’s, and once a month to Portland to visit son Rob. She enjoyed going to concerts here in Corvallis, and in Eugene at the Hult. A strong loving relationship was held by the couple. They were recognized around town due to their distinctive bearing with a wheelchair being pushed to restaurants and musical venues. Lynn and George, and their two boys, Robert (Rob) 30 who lives in Portland, and Richard (Rikki) 25 living at home and going to OSU in Corvallis, made a warm, loving and busy family. Her demeanor had become more pleasant and accommodating over time. Although debilitated she never lost her sense of humor, wit and intelligence. These last years have been filled with the love of her family, and for all who knew her well. Any intimation that it soon was to be finished was ignored. So when Lynn caught a cold, little did they realize that this was to be the end, going to Good Samaritan as pneumonia set in which just got progressively worse every day. Although her death was not surprising due to her deteriorating condition with MS, it felt like she could have gone on like this forever. The cold led to a fever, and then to pneumonia, the coup de grâce. She was conscious to the last moment, being serenaded with singing, declarations of love, and touching. A peaceful cloud of love surrounded the small group with her during those final moments. She consciously asked to have the BiPap mask removed after which she soon succumbed. George chanted to her and sang as they looked into each other's eyes until her final breath when she closed her eyes. We all miss her terribly. Gate Gate Parasamgate, no more Pleasure, no more Pain. Gate Gate, No More Suffering: "Hallelujah!””Hallelujah!!””Hallelujah!!!”

Lynn Andrews Gibson

December 18, 1956 - February 16, 2016