It was Marion Lewenstein’s dream to become a reporter, a dream she achieved with lots of hard work—and without having earned a college degree, to the surprise of many of her sources.
Photo: Linda A. Cicero/Stanford News Service
“Some of the amusing situations were because I was always worried about not understanding the technical part of [the coverage],” Lewenstein recalled in a 2014 interview for the Stanford Historical Society. “And sometimes [my sources] would ask me, ‘Do you have a degree in physics?’ ‘No.’ ‘Do you have an engineering degree?’ ‘No.’ ‘What paper did you work for before?’ And I would say, keeping my face straight, ‘Women’s Wear Daily.’ ”
Marion Lee Lewenstein, a teaching professor emerita in communication and a journalist who was among the first to report on Silicon Valley’s tech industry, died March 6 at her home in Palo Alto. She was 93.
Born in Cleveland and raised by a single mother during the Depression, Lewenstein turned down several college scholarships to help support her family. After high school, she moved to California and was hired as a secretary at Koret of California, taking night classes in the hopes of securing a full-time reporting job at Women’s Wear Daily. Less than a year later, she got that job and would go on to work at Home Furnishings Daily, Electronic News, Time and Fortune.
Lewenstein carried with her a spirit of curiosity as she tackled groundbreaking stories, covering the early days of Silicon Valley despite the fact that she had neither a technology nor a business background. “She was the consummate reporter,” says communication professor emeritus Don Roberts, PhD ’68. “Marion was interested in everything. She could sit down with anyone, even complete strangers, and be in a deep conversation in 60 seconds.”
She joined the faculty in 1975, imbuing students with basic skills in journalism and a sense of its history. “When she got offered the job, she was floating on air,” says her son, Bruce, a professor of science communication at Cornell. Three years later, Lewenstein received the Dinkelspiel Award for outstanding service to undergraduate education. At Stanford, she also served as academic secretary of the Faculty Senate and provided guidance and support for the Rebele and John S. Knight journalism fellowship programs.
Lewenstein and her late husband, Harry, were resident fellows at Schiff House, giving her family an up-close look at her connection to Stanford. “Mom and Dad established lasting relationships with students,” says Bruce. “She left a kind of impression on people that, 30 years later, they wanted to stop in and say hello.”
Roberts concurs. “Marion was one of those rare teachers who always listened,” he says. “It’s a marvelous quality.”
In addition to Bruce, Lewenstein is survived by her daughter, Bailey Merman; three grandsons, including Joel, ’08; and one great-grandson.
Melina Walling, ’20, MA ’21, is a writer and multimedia storyteller based in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Email her at stanford.magazine@stanford.edu.
