Waldtraut "Wally" Gill of Murphys

      Murphys resident Waldtraut "Wally" Gill died unexpectedly of natural causes on Wednesday March 30, 2016 She was 84.

    Wally was born
on March 11, 1932 in Newark, New Jersey to Kate (Berlieb) and Thomas Rodegker, both originally fro Germany.

   She attended South 17th Street Elementary and West Side High School in Newark and spent her summers on the Jersey shore.

    She attended the Newark campus of Rutgers University, where she earned  both a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science.  She studied Biology, Chemistry and Zoology.

   In 1955 she received a Fullbright Scholarship to study Chemistry at the University of Munich, Germany for a year, one of only two such awards granted each year.

   After college, Wally worked for the New York Chemical Procurement District Testing Laboratory as a chemist before joining Ciba Pharmaceuticals.

   She later moved to Los Angeles and worked at UCLA, where she ran experiments involving nuclear medicine.

   She married Robert Gill, Jr. in 1965, with whom she had two daughters.  After her daughters were born, Wally worked as a bookkeeper and a special education aide.

   Wally and her family moved to Calaveras County in 1981, where she first worked as a teacher before becoming a real estate agent.  Wally was a realtor in the county for more than 20 years.

    Wally had many interests; she loved knitting, traveling, gardening, spending time with her grandson and going to the movies.  She loved animals, especially her dachshunds.

   She was a member of the Master Gardeners of Calaveras county for 15 years and also volunteered at the Murphys Senior Center.

   Wally was someone who could never sit still and was always busy doing something.

   She was preceded in death by her husband of 47 years, Robert Gill, Jr. She is survived by her daughter Anneliese Gill and her husband, Brock Kolby of Murphys, daughter Katherine Gill, of Palo Alto, grandson Jimmy Kolby of Murphys; sister Mary Lou McNerney and her husband Joe McNerney of Bethany Beach, Delaware and her nephew Michael McNerney and his family of Falls Church, Virginia.

   She is also survived by her pets, relatives in Florida and Germany and many, many friends in Calaveras County.

   A Celebration of Life will take place on Saturday April 9, 2016 at 11 AM at the Master Gardener of Calaveras County Demonstration Garden at 891 Mountain Ranch Road in San Andreas.

   Friends and family are invited to share food and stories about Wally. In lieu of flowers, donations ay be made to the Calaveras Humane Society, the Calaveras County Master Gardeners or the Murphys Senior Center.

   Angels Memorial Chapel is handling arrangements.
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