Marian Flink Leyden

Lebanon, N.H. — Marian F. Leyden, age 97, died on Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, at Harvest Hill in Lebanon. The daughter of Dr. and Mrs. (Helen Hartwell Flink) C. Russell Flink, she was born in Pleasantville, N.Y. on May 1, 1919. She graduated from Pleasantville High School and received a degree from Cornell University after which she completed a year long internship at Grasslands Hospital in N.Y. and earned a degree from the American Hospital Dietetic Association. On July 3, 1942, she married Donald F. Leyden, her high school classmate and moved to Washington, DC where he was stationed in the Navy after earning a degree at Penn State University. From Washington, DC, Don was transferred to New Orleans and then to Galveston, Texas, during which time Marian and their infant son returned to Pleasantville, N.Y. to live with Don’s parents for a year. After Don’s Naval service ended in 1945, they moved to Holyoke, Mass. where Don worked for his family’s paper company, Hampden Glazed Paper and Card Company and two more children were born. From there they bought a home in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. Don commuted to New York City and managed the NYC office of Hampden Glazed Paper and Card Company.

22 years later, Don and Marian moved to Brookfield Center, Conn. and opened an art gallery. Donmar Studio specialized in producing limited edition prints of some of the nation’s best contemporary wildlife artists. Marian did the bookkeeping and Don did the custom “shadow-box” framing. Starting at the age of 64 (and continuing for the next 18 years), Don and Marian spent their summers traveling in Alaska. They went fly fishing for trout and salmon; sleeping in tents on the tundra and rafting on the rivers. They retold their adventures in multimedia presentations given to various outdoor and fishing clubs, church groups and civic organizations. In the winter they often traveled to small islands in the Caribbean, Costa Rica, Belize, and Mexico, so Don could fish; and continued to share their travel shows with the public until 2000.

In the 1960s, Marian directed a summer sleep-over camp for Girl Scouts in N.Y. State. She was a professional Camp Advisor for the Girl Scouts. Marian had a busy life and enjoyed her last seven years as a resident of Harvest Hill belonging to the bridge clubs and book club.

Marian is survived by her two sisters, three children, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren and several nieces and nephews. A private family memorial service celebrating her life will be held in Stoddard, N.H. in the summer.