Marian Gopinath, née Wells, was blessed with determination, a keen sense of humor, and an adventurous spirit.  She was born in Nottingham, England, and attended Nottingham Girls’ High School. She studied French and English Literature at the University of Sheffield. There, she met her beloved husband, Anand, and they married in 1966. Subsequently, they lived in Bangor, Wales, for twelve years before moving to Boston, Massachusetts in 1978 with their first daughter, Juliet.  Their second daughter, Charlotte, was born in Boston.  In 1986, they moved to Orono, Minnesota.  Marian succumbed to COVID-19 after a long battle with Parkinson’s on Tuesday, June 2, 2020.  She will be missed dearly.

Marian was an avid violinist and patron of the arts. She played violin in the Roseville String Ensemble, Northeast Orchestra of Fridley, and the Minnetonka Civic Orchestra. She studied violin and piano at the MacPhail Center for the Arts, and passed on her love of music to her entire family. 

Marian was keenly interested in literature and collected many books. She introduced her children to Shakespeare and enjoyed attending Shakespeare in the Park and the Guthrie Theater. Marian also studied French, Spanish, Italian, and taught herself Hindi.  Marian relished wearing home-made skirts in teal, magenta and lavender batik prints. She also found time to knit mohair sweaters during her children’s musical activities.

As a young woman, Marian traveled throughout Europe and hitchhiked across France. In 2004, she took a month-long trip to India with Anand and Juliet.  She marveled at the architecture and jewelry, and fell in love with the brilliant colors, clothing and printing styles.  She was determined to buy traditional wooden printing blocks, which involved visiting a block printing factory in Jaipur, another store to find the source of the blocks, and an expedition to a village, complete with an escort of goats and children.

In Minnesota, Marian’s garden is filled with the graceful trees that she and Anand planted every Labor Day weekend. Her favorites were the Catalpa, Buckeye, Horse Chestnut, and Kentucky Coffeetree. Each summer, she and Anand packed up the car and the children, and embarked on a camping trip. Marian loved the windswept mountains of Colorado, especially Mt. Chapin, Mt. Chiquita and Ypsilon Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park.  She knew her bird songs and how to identify plants, and treasured camping in her little blue tent. Most of all, she loved the seaside.  Walking along the beach and collecting shells, or sitting in the shade under the umbrella while Juliet and Charlotte built sand castles and collected hermit crabs, or swimming in the ocean at Demerest Lloyd and Crane Beach in Massachusetts were some of her dearest memories.

She was preceded by her parents, Bernard and Phyllis Wells (née Featherstone) of Nottingham, England. She is survived by her husband, Anand Gopinath, her children, Juliet and Charlotte, their spouses, Brian Lay and Paul Tillberg and her four grandchildren, Payal, Evan, Anjali and Kalyani. A private memorial was held via Zoom, and a tree was planted in Marian's garden in her honor. 

Memorials may be sent to the Marian Gopinath Scholarship at the MacPhail Center for Music. 

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Published on June 20, 2021