Marian Lupu a social activist and βzealous warriorβ for older adults, died at her Tucson home on Sunday. She was 91.
Lupu founded the Pima Council on Aging and was its director for 40 years β waiting until she was 82 to step down and even then continued on as a consultant. Her former co-workers and others who knew her credit Lupu with creating a system of services and resources for aging Pima County residents.
βThousands of older adults in this community every day are getting assistance and thatβs because Marian knew what needed to happen and made it happen,β said Debra Adams, chief operating officer at the Pima Council on Aging. Lupu hired Adams in 1986.
Glasses on her head
Known for her habit of stuffing two or three pairs of glasses into her piled-up hair, Lupu was for decades an omnipresent and outspoken activist for elders in the Tucson area.
Former Tucson Mayor Lew Murphy, who died in December 2005, recalled in a 2003 interview with the Star that Lupu had a well-known tactic in advancing funding for seniorsβ she would pack the City Council chambers with elderly people. She was relentless.
βMarian, just tell us what you want, and weβll get this over with,β Murphy would direct her.
Lupuβs ability to fill rooms and agitate for change was fueled by a passion for her causes, Adams said.
βPeople paid attention to her. You could see she cared and so she drew you in to also share in her caring,β Adams said. βShe could talk to anybody. She was known not only in this community but at the state and national level.β
Lupu also spoke against poverty among local families and gaps in health care. During the β90s she became angered by the bloated salaries of several HMO executives.
βIt is obscene for any one individual to be able to profit to that extent out of what really is a necessity to peopleβs lives,β she told the Star in 1998.
βSinglemindedβ
Over the years, Lupu went to several White House conferences on aging and was βsinglemindedβ about improving the lives of older adults, Pima Council on Aging President and CEO W. Mark Clark said.
Clark became CEO in 2014 long after Lupu had retired. But her influence at the organization never waned. During the application process he knew he was in a good position to get the job when Lupu friended him on Facebook, he said.
But she was never heavy-handed about trying to run the organization after she left. Rather, she was one to show up at fundraisers, holiday parties and other events, he said, and always asked before getting involved.
The council is one of hundreds of area agencies on aging funded through the federal Older Americans Act of 1965.
Thatβs the same year that Lupu, a public policy researcher with a masterβs degree from the University of Chicago, moved to Tucson from Pittsburgh with her husband, Charles, a biochemist, and their three children.
She became director of what was then Tucson Council on Aging in early 1967. She worked for nine months without pay, drawing her first paycheck that October.
Over the years, Lupu created an awareness of aging issues that helped position the state to address the governorβs βAging 2020β plan to meet the needs of the aging population.
In 1975, she became the first fellow of the Gerontological Society of America serving in a non-academic position and served on numerous local, national and state boards, including the Governorβs Task Force on Retirement and Aging.
In her role with the Pima Council on Aging, she fostered partnerships with other leaders in Tucson, including former Tucson Medical Center President and CEO Don Shropshire.
Together, Lupu and Shropshire launched numerous initiatives, including a Centenarian celebration to honor local residents who reached their 100th year, Tucson Medical Center spokeswoman Julia Strange said. That celebration continues as an annual event.
βWe are all better for Marianβs passion, dedication and tireless advocacy for older adults throughout Southern Arizona,β Strange said.
Adina Wingate, hired by Lupu at the council in 2006, says Lupu nurtured the organization to become a, βsingular and outstanding nonprofit.β
She put into place a system of services that many local seniors rely on today, like home-delivered meals and help with home repairs, her former co-workers say.
βHer commitment to improving the safety net of aging services is an example of her leadership, grit and tenacity, as a true leader in her field,β Wingate said.
Dancing in the Streets
Adams said as a boss, Lupu was both warm and engaging and had a genuine interest in her employeesβ lives. In turn, she shared her own life with her co-workers.
βI feel very blessed that I was able to learn from her,β Adams said.
In her later years, Lupu became a volunteer helping young people with Dancing in the Streets Arizona, founded by her daughter and son-in-law, Soleste Lupu and Joseph Rodgers.
βStaying involved with what excites me challenges me to give meaning to my life beyond my own existence,β she told the Arizona Jewish Post in 2014. βThatβs why Iβm so happy to be working with children.β
But Clark said Lupu also had the lives of seniors in mind while she was working with children.
βOn more than one occasion she said that improving the lives of young people was really a long-term strategy of improving the lives of older adults,β Clark said. βRaising children well ensured they would get jobs, pay into Social Security and take care of older adults.β
Monday was a sad day at the Pima Council on Aging, Wingate said.
βIt was a genuine privilege to be hired by her a decade ago in 2006, to get to know her and her loving family, and to experience her kindness and generosity, too,β Wingate said. βI will miss her a lot.β
Clark predicts Lupuβs influence will remain in the Tucson community.
βI think Marian has left a tremendous legacy and example for us to live up to. Her presence is so large she will be with us always,β he said. βIβm honored to have known her and blessed to be a successor.
Information about a memorial service was not immediately available.
