After a disastrous geology exam, she spent so much time studying in the Bancroft and Morrison Libraries that each became a “home away from home” while she completed her degree in political science and history. Her good study habits paid off, and by her junior year, she joined the Prytanean Society, the first women’s academic honor organization in the United States.
Even for such a dedicated student, “There was always something going on” that she could participate in through her sorority, Alpha Chi Omega — including annual train trips to Los Angeles to watch Cal play football against rivals UCLA and USC. Marian’s years at Cal were especially important because it was there that she met Ken Thompson ’39, her late husband. The two dated at Berkeley and then married the December following her graduation.
Ken, who had earned a degree in accounting, embarked on a career as a CPA and eventually became head partner of Coopers and Lybrand in Oakland (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). Marian worked briefly at the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco before devoting her energies to raising a family. (She credits being married to an accountant with the “balanced” birth order of their four children — girl, boy, girl, boy.)
