Marian Reid Obituary

Reid, Marian Vilas July 4, 1923 March 23, 2017. Marian was born in Chicago, Illinois to Lawrence H. Vilas and Mary Moreland Vilas. She was the sister of the late Betty Vilas Hedblom of Chicago. Marian attended the Girls Latin School of Chicago and graduated from the Westover School in Middlebury, Connecticut in 1942. She was a past Trustee of both the Westover School and the Elgin Academy (Elgin, Illinois). Marian spent the summers of her youth on Cape Cod, in the towns of Wianno and Osterville, with her sister and mother. During WWII she was a volunteer Red Cross nurse's aide, which she truly enjoyed. Marian traveled extensively across all seven continents with good friends Joan and Corwith Hamell, Miram and Gordon Ewing, and Lucy Grimm. She picked up photography later in life and took wonderful pictures, always considering the composition and critiquing her work afterwards. Marian married Bryan Seaborne Reid, Jr. in 1949 and together they had four children. They would later divorce but remained friends. Marian is survived by her four children, Bryan Seaborne Reid, III, Andrew Vilas Reid, Nancy Reid Walker (Mathew), and Alexander Brittingham Reid. In addition, she is survived by her two grandchildren, Bryan Seaborne Reid, IV and Margaret Brittingham Fitch (Albert). Her children remember their Mother as being the calm in the midst of the storms of childhood calamities like the occasional broken bone, or all four children in bed with the chicken pox or measles, one child becoming lost in the woods, and later in the mending of broken hearts. She created and wrote "Mom's Memos", truly a precursor of today's internet blogs, to stay in touch with her children when they were away at school and as they set off to begin their own lives. Each memo was filled funny stories, photographs or cartoons and was sent out monthly. Marian's poems were legendary in their wit and humor and remain as a lasting remembrance of her life. Marian loved and had dogs throughout her life starting with "Ditto" her cocker spaniel who was purchased at the Marshall Field store back in the day. At her request, there will be no service, but donations in her memory may be sent to the Westover School, 1237 Whittemore Road, Middlebury, CT 06762.