Mary Schwabauer Obituary

Mary Leavens Schwabauer

Ventura - Mary Leavens Schwabauer, a former teacher who became a leading figure in Ventura County's agricultural, philanthropic and cultural communities, died Sept. 19 in Ventura. She was 93.

Mary was born Nov. 3, 1926, in Puebla, Mexico, to Paul and Anne Leavens, Presbyterian missionaries working in Oaxaca. The family moved to Santa Paula when Mary was 18 months old, after Paul contracted tuberculosis in the field, to be near family. Paul had been raised there by his parents, Joseph and Mary Leavens, and soon began working with his father in the insurance business and in the farming operation Joseph had begun building in the Santa Clara River Valley.

Mary and her parents moved into a home on La Vuelta Street, where she and her three siblings — Dorothy, Paul Jr. and Sarah — grew up. The children all graduated from Santa Paula High School, Mary in 1945.

She continued her education by attending Whitworth College in Spokane Wash., where she earned a bachelor of arts degree, and then Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., where she majored in concert organ and earned a second B.A. degree. Finding it difficult to secure employment, she returned to school once again, this time at the University of Southern California, where she earned a master's degree in education with an emphasis on instruction of students in music at the elementary and junior high school levels. Mary's twin loves, music and education, would strongly influence the rest of her life.

After graduating from USC, Mary returned to Ventura County and started her career teaching English and music at Cabrillo Junior High School in Ventura. It was during this time that she met her future husband, Charles Schwabauer. Charlie was working as a paint and body man at Farrar Auto Works, repairing damaged automobiles. He spent his free time with his aerobatic airplane, a Ryan, which he and his best friend had bought as war surplus and restored using his expert mechanical skills.

They met while she was attending flight school at the Ventura Airpark where Charlie kept his Ryan. He was the dashing pilot and she the lovely lady student, and after a short courtship Charlie took Mary up for "a spin" as he would say. While flying inverted over Telegraph Road in front of Mary's parents' ranch, he proposed and refused to turn right side up until he received the answer he wanted. They were married March 29, 1958.

Their son, Dave, was born in July 1961, and in January 1962 Charlie started working for Mary's family, which had begun developing the Fairview Ranch in Moorpark. Working with Mary's dad and brother, she and Charlie began turning bare hills of sagebrush covered with a few dead apricot trees into a producing citrus and avocado ranch, known today as Leavens Fairview Ranch. Mary and Charlie would live on that ranch together until his death in June 2013. It became a significant element in the overall Leavens Ranches LLC operation, now managed by the fourth generation of family members. The company today has grown into one of Ventura County's leading citrus and avocado producers, and has also expanded into lemon, avocado and wine-grape production in Monterey County.

When Dave started kindergarten in Moorpark in 1966. Mary returned to her teaching career, which she had placed on hold when he was born. She taught every grade level from kindergarten through high school. She particularly relished the feeling of reward that came from teaching first-graders how to read, although most of her career was spent teaching English and music to junior high students. That presented challenges of its own, but tackling difficult tasks was something Mary also relished.

In addition to her 35-year career as an educator, Mary devoted enormous time, energy and passion to Ventura County's civic, cultural and philanthropic institutions. She served on the Moorpark Memorial Union High School board; the Moorpark Chamber of Commerce as board member and president; the Los Robles Regional Medical Center board; the Moorpark Women's Fortnightly Club as board member and president; the California Federated Women's Club Tierra Adorada District as board member and president; the Ventura Master Chorale board; the New West Symphony board; the Moorpark Art Commission; the First Financial Federal Credit Union as board member and president; and the Ventura County Community Foundation board.

Mary and Charlie were charter members and past presidents of the Moorpark Historical Society. Mary was also a founding member and president of the Associated Historical Societies and Museums of Ventura County. She also served on the board and as president for the Rancho Camulos Museum, playing a key role in raising the funds necessary to restore it after the 1994 Northridge quake.

One of her most lasting contributions to the county's cultural landscape came through her service to what was then known as the Ventura County Museum of History & Art. Her involvement there began when she became a member of the board of directors in 1988, almost immediately after she retired from teaching. She became a docent in 1989, the same year she was elected 1st vice president of the board. Mary began the first of two years as president in 1990.

Mary changed the way the museum did business. She brought professionalism to the board and set a new direction for the museum. She went to a conference in Chicago of the American Association of Museums during the year she was 1st vice president. She came back knowing that, for the Ventura County museum to have a successful future as a respected, destination museum, it had to be accredited. She set the museum on the steps necessary to achieve that goal, planning carefully who would succeed her, based on what the needs of the museum would be to carry out her vision.

Mary joined the Ventura County Community Foundation board in 2002 and became its first woman chair two years later. She served on the VCCF scholarship committee for more than 15 years; helped to establish the Heritage Fund to preserve Ventura County's history and values; dedicated time and resources to the Workforce Education Task Force of the Ventura County Civic Alliance; and, was a founding member of the Destino Hispanic Legacy and Women's Legacy funds. Mary co-chaired VCCF's 25th Anniversary Celebration, which raised enough to found a scholarship to help Ventura County residents attend graduate school - the first of its kind at VCCF. In 2009, the VCCF board established the Mary Schwabauer Leadership Fund to honor her dedication to the foundation's mission. She was named Volunteer of the Year in 2013 by the Santa Barbara-Ventura Counties Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

In addition to her husband, Charlie, she was preceded in death by her sisters Dorothy and Sarah, as well as her brother Paul. She is survived by son David and his husband Michael McMahan of Fillmore; granddaughter Brianne and her fiancé Caleb Whitcome of Jones, Okla.; granddaughter Kinsie Flame and her husband Jake, and grandchildren Liberty and Patriot Flame, all of Newbury Park; and sisters-in-law Margaret Schwabauer of Ventura and Dolores Schwabauer of Redding. She is also survived by many nieces and nephews in California and across the United States.

The family intends to host a celebration of Mary's life and achievements when it is safe to do so, likely next summer, and requests that memorial donations be made to the Museum of Ventura County, the Santa Paula Art Museum, the Moorpark Women's Fortnightly Club, or the Ventura County Community Foundation's Young Artists Scholarship Fund.