Marilyn Rose Adcock Welch

Long-time Port Angeles, Wash., resident Marilyn Rose Adcock Welch, 96, died in Port Townsend, Wash., on July 2, 2026. Sometimes described as a true “renaissance woman,” to her family, friends, and caregivers she was a guiding light throughout all her years.

Marilyn was born on Jan. 9, 1930, to Elver Forrest Adcock and Annabel Cogswell Adcock in Anderson, Indiana. She grew up with frequent visits from extended family including a grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Through his work for Church Extension in the Church of God, her dad Elver traveled across the continental United States, Alaska, and Mexico. The family sometimes traveled with him, or to him, on mission trips when he helped congregations organize the building of new churches. They also traveled to visit her mother’s siblings, some of which had moved to western Canada.

Marilyn was an A student in all subjects. She played piano, loved to read, wrote for the school newspaper, acted in school plays, sang in the choir, and was a fan of Hoosier basketball. She graduated with honors in 1948 and went on to attend Anderson College in her hometown. In her college class of 1952, she was one of 11 students and only two women to be named to the Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. After earning her bachelor of arts degree, again with honors, she went on to teach English for two years, first in St. Elmo, Illinois, and then at Sparrows Point, Maryland, near Baltimore.

It was there where she met Larry Welch, who taught at the same high school. She had no car to get to work, so he volunteered to drive her to and from school. This was how they got to know each other better. They were married in Anderson, Indiana, on June 26, 1954.

After spending a sweltering summer in New York City, the couple eventually made their home in McLean, Virginia, where Larry taught reading, study skills, speech and drama at Stratford Junior High in Arlington. While living in McLean, daughter Lynn was born in 1956 and later, son Dave, in 1959.

Larry’s work at Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics took the family to New Rochelle, New York, where they lived for a time until Larry returned to teaching public school in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. They lived in suburban Cleveland, in Warrensville Heights, for about five years. Every Christmas, Marilyn and Larry took the kids and rode the Rapid Transit to downtown Cleveland to shop for Christmas presents at Halle’s and Higbee’s department stores.

While living in Warrensville Heights, Larry and Marilyn became members of Aldersgate Methodist Church, where they found a spiritual home and Marilyn continued her passion for the theater, something that she and Larry shared. They organized several religious drama productions there.

In the mid-1960s, Marilyn’s dad’s work prompted Elver and Annabel to move from Indiana to Portland, Ore. To visit them, Marilyn, Larry and the family made two cross-country road trips, during which they discovered and fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. Their favorite spot was the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, so Larry sought teaching jobs in Port Angeles. He first landed a job at Roosevelt Junior High School, and a year later, at Peninsula College, where he taught for 23 years.

Although Marilyn didn’t stay with teaching public school after she and Larry were married, she was employed part-time at a nursery school and by Blue Cross. She was a homemaker for many years before returning to work as a library clerk for the North Olympic Library System at the Port Angeles branch when it was located on Lincoln Street. While working for Merrily Ripley at two different adoption agencies, the Washington Association of Christian Adoptive Parents (WACAP), and then Adoption Advocates International, Marilyn made several international trips to visit orphanages in South Korea, Guatemala, and India. Sometimes she escorted babies and young children back to the U.S. Larry accompanied her on at least one trip to Korea so that both of them could help manage young children on the long flight from Seoul to Seattle. When they landed at SeaTac airport, Marilyn witnessed many happy introductions between adoptive families and their brand-new family members.

Marilyn and Larry sought a church community to follow their congregation in Ohio and eventually found it in Port Angeles by joining with other like-minded families to form a House Church. They believed in putting their money toward good works in the community such as the food bank and other social needs rather than tithing to pay for a minister’s salary and a church building. They met in members’ homes and alternated who planned the worship. These were friendships that would last for decades.

Marilyn’s kind and approachable nature was at the heart of deep connections with family, friends, and everyone she met. She always took the time to listen but never judged. Upon joining the family, in-laws keenly felt her supportive presence. Friends of Lynn and Dave said she was warm and accepting; they always felt welcome in the home.

People were impressed, too, that Marilyn was exceptionally smart, and talented in so many pursuits that son Dave called her a “renaissance woman.” She played piano, guitar, and recorder, sang in choirs, often was a soprano soloist, and led music at church. She enjoyed oil painting, knitting, and quilting, and had a knack for decorating and redecorating. She wrote limericks for certain occasions. She also had a brain for puzzles. She worked a daily crossword and sudoku and enjoyed a good jigsaw puzzle. Lynn and Dave always thought that she could become a Jeopardy champion on television; she had a breadth of knowledge that surpassed that of the average puzzler.

As a young mother in the 1960s, Marilyn was an active participant in the Friendly Town organization, which sought to offer inner-city kids an opportunity to get out of the city in the summertime, and for suburban families to learn from those kids. She also was active in PTA groups, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts. In Port Angeles she was a member of the

League of Women Voters, the Port Angeles Community Chorus, Monday Musicale, Messengers women’s choir, a recorder instrumental group, and a reading club with friends. Perhaps her chief passion was the theater, appearing in Port Angeles Light Opera (PALOA) productions, Olympic Theater Arts plays, and a stunning number – 32 – of Port Angeles Community Players productions that she either acted in or directed. Highlights include the plays “The Skin of Our Teeth,” “Arsenic and Old Lace,” “Harvey,” and “Inherit the Wind.”

In their final years in Port Angeles, Larry and Marilyn made a home at Park View Villas, where they were active participants in the culture of the retirement home for as long as they could be. They later moved to Port Townsend to be closer to daughter Lynn.

After Larry died in 2023, Marilyn continued to live at Victoria Place in Port Townsend for a time, later moving to Life Care Center of Port Townsend, where she received excellent care in her last years. Even when Parkinson’s and dementia took their toll, she never lost her sense of humor, her appreciation for beauty, her kindness, her humor, and her love of people. She endeared herself to the staff at Life Care Center, where she lived for the last two and a half years; she loved to hold hands with the aides and nurses, and they enjoyed the sometimes-funny things she said.

Larry preceded her in death on April 16, 2023. Also preceding her in death, besides her parents, were an older sister, Carol, who died at age 2 before Marilyn was born; and a brother, Roger Forrest Adcock. Survivors include sister Janice Adcock Yates of Port Angeles; sister-in-law Pamela Adcock of Sacramento, Calif.; daughter Lynn Welch Nowak (John) of Port Townsend, Wash.; son David Welch (Kathleen) of Arlington, Wash.; grandsons Clay Havens Nowak (Rachel) of Portland, Ore., Sam Nowak of Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, Ben Welch (Katherine) of Bellingham, Wash., Casey Welch (Natalie) of Lake Stevens, Wash.; granddaughter Leah Lawson (Sean) of Granite Falls, Wash.; six great-grandchildren; three nieces and a nephew; and many members of her extended family.

A celebration of life is planned for both Marilyn and Larry at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13 at the Community Players Playhouse, 1235 E. Lauridsen Blvd., in Port Angeles. Memorials may be made to the Community Players, P.O. Box 2807, Port Angeles, WA 98362, or to the Peninsula College Library, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles, WA 98362.