Lasting Memories

Virginia (Jeannie) Howard Siegman
Feb. 22, 1944-Sept. 11, 2026
Palo Alto, California

A few short days after Jeannie’s parents married (November 28, 1941), what should have been their honeymoon was cut short by Pearl Harbor: December 7. Her father, William H. Howard, was called up to active duty in the Navy, and her mother “Ginny” Virginia (née Wilson) returned to her parents’ home in Santa Cruz. Thus almost three years passed before Jeannie was born, in February 1944. Baby and mother remained in Santa Cruz with the grandparents.

When the war was finally over, Jeannie’s family settled in Hillsborough and San Mateo, where the Howard family roots ran back to 1839. Santa Cruz became Jeannie’s lifelong second home, and she and her younger sister Marion spent carefree summers there throughout her youth.

1949 was the exception: that summer brought one of the last polio epidemics before the Salk vaccine. Jeannie’s sister was spared, but Jeannie spent her illness in isolation at Children’s Hospital in San Francisco.

Afterward, she faced the challenge of adapting to partial paralysis. A series of surgeries over the next decade eventually freed her from braces and left her with only minimal lifelong limitations.

Jeannie attended Crystal Springs (a girls’ school at that time), graduated with First Honors, and then eventually graduated from Stanford, Phi Beta Kappa. “Eventually” because in her sophomore year at Stanford, an old beau suddenly reappeared on the scene and proposed that they elope.

Unfortunately, the groom was committed to reporting immediately for a 6-month U.S. Naval Officers’ training program starting in the state of Georgia. Stanford promised to let Jeannie come back and re-enroll any time, and no one seemed to raise a red flag, so off she went on a cross-country drive that passed for a honeymoon.

After Georgia came two years in Naples, Italy. From Stanford to the state of Georgia had undeniably been a culture shock, but Naples was an even bigger adjustment: Her young husband was assigned sea duty, so he rarely saw his bride. The full half of her glass was having free time for extensive European travel, and getting to do some of it at the wheel of an MGB roadster.

Although at that time the U.S. Navy was said to consistently record the lowest divorce rate among all military branches, in time the young couple became a statistic. Jeannie returned to Stanford alone and completed her studies.

In 1965 she again accepted a proposal of marriage, from another Stanford grad. The couple settled in Los Altos, and in 1968 they welcomed a daughter, Elaine Lissner. Sadly, that young family became another statistic.

On the 5th of January, 1970, Jeannie had begun a career at Stanford’s Computer Center. Working outside the home was not unheard of, but still uncommon for mothers with young children. Jeannie considered it an experiment. That “experiment” lasted for almost 20 years—through the rapid evolution from mainframes, minicomputers, microcomputers, local area networks, ARPANET, and eventually the Internet. With no engineering background, it was a matter of learning on the job, but she took great satisfaction in helping students and faculty navigate the sometimes-unwieldy interfaces. Meanwhile, her daughter flourished, thanks in part to a strong start at Stanford’s Bing Nursery School.

Around 1972, mutual friends introduced Jeannie to Professor Anthony (Tony) Siegman, a pioneering laser researcher and beloved teacher. Tony’s Stanford office was a short walk from Jeannie’s, and lunchtime dates quickly revealed that they had a lot in common. Tony was surviving as a single father of two sons and a daughter.

One of Jeannie’s cousins had joked that her track record with matrimony thus far was “trial and error” ... but “Third time’s the charm” clearly began with Tony. The couple married in 1974, formed a blended family, and enjoyed almost 40 happy years together, until Tony’s death in 2011.

Those years were filled with Tahoe ski trips and other adventures of all sorts, including travels to five continents. Their home on the Stanford campus was beautifully situated next to the open foothills, with a view of the Dish. Jeannie loved the garden and gradually transformed it into a wonderful spot for hosting friends and University events.

As the children went off to college, Jeannie had repurposed parts of the big “empty nest” to accommodate a succession of graduate students and visiting scholars. Only after a decade did she reclaim some time and freedom to travel by downsizing to a much smaller house, again with a garden and equally close to the heart of the campus.

Jeannie is survived by her daughter, Elaine Lissner of Lisbon, Portugal; her sister, Marion Hoekenga of Tucson, Arizona; two nieces; and two stepsons, Winn Siegman and Patrick Siegman.