Longtime community activist Marian Lupu died at her Tucson home on Sunday. She was 91.
Lupu founded the Pima Council on Aging and was its director for 40 years — waiting until she was 82 to step down and even then continued on as a consultant to the agency for several years.
In her later years she became a tireless volunteer with Dancing in the Streets Arizona, founded by her daughter and son-in-law, Soleste Lupu and Joseph Rodgers, going to the studio six days a week, more than five hours each day.
Known for her habit of stuffing two or three pairs of glasses into her piled-up hair, Lupu was an omnipresent activist for elders in the Tucson area.
The Pima Council on Aging is one of hundreds of area agencies on aging funded through the federal Older Americans Act of 1965.
That's the same year that Lupu, a public policy researcher, moved to Tucson with her husband, Charles, a biochemist and their three children from Pittsburgh.
She landed the job as 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 governor's 'Aging 2020' plan to meet the needs of the aging population.
Former Tucson Mayor Lew Murphy, who died in December 2005, recalled in a 2003 interview with the Star that Lupu's tactic in advancing funding for seniors was to pack the council chambers with elderly people.
"Marian, just tell us what you want, and we'll get this over with," Murphy would direct her.
Lupu hired current Pima Council on Aging employee Adina Wingate in 2006. Wingate says Lupu nurtured the Pima Council on Aging to become a "singular and outstanding non-profit."
"She was tireless in her commitment to promoting the health, safety and well-being of older adults and family caregivers," Wingate said.
"Her 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."
Wingate says it is a sad day at the Pima Council on Aging.
"It 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," Wingate said. "I will miss her a lot."
Information about a memorial service was not immediately available.
