Merrily McManus Laytner: August 27, 1942—October 24, 2010
Merrily McManus Laytner was born in Seattle on August 27, 1942 and, although born to Jewish parents, did not know she was Jewish until she was 9 years old. In the 4th grade, her teacher told his class how he was a refugee from Europe and of the great suffering he had endured. When Merrily related this to her mother, she was told that, like the teacher, she too was Jewish. That encounter with her teacher — the late and beloved Cantor Joseph Frankel of Herzl- Ner Tamid — sparked a lifelong involvement with the Jewish community, starting with the youth choir of Temple de Hirsch.
After getting an MFA from the Otis Art Institute, Merrily returned to Seattle and started a family with her then-husband, Sam Cordova. She became active in the Jewish community, teaching art classes for seniors at the Jewish Community Center while her children were in daycare there. Still later, she entered the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s Young Leadership program and, following Michael Schuffler’s lead, she became active in the Jewish Federation’s former Community Relations Council, during which time she served as chair, co-founded a statewide organization (the now-defunct Washington Association of Jewish Communities) and helped design and implement annual statewide political action/Jewish cultural conferences. For these accomplishments, she was awarded the Spitzer Family Young Leadership Award.
Moving from lay leader to professional in 1984, Merrily was hired as the Jewish Federation’s first Women’s Division director. During the next five years, she brought a new intensity to that program, adding a serious dose of feminism to its work. Contributions increased by 70 percent in three years and in 1987 the program was recognized for having achieved the largest Women’s Division increase in North America.
In 1989 Merrily was promoted to the position of campaign director, and led the Federation’s overall fundraising activities during a particularly exciting time when the Jewish community was absorbing Soviet Jewish immigrants and organizing the exodus of Ethiopian Jewry. In 1993, her development team brought in $5 million for the annual campaign and an additional $6.4 million for the second-line Operation Exodus campaign.
Her proudest accomplishment during this period, however, was to co-found with the late Shirley Bridge, Michele Rosen, Janet Gray, Karen Mayers Gamoran, the late Babs Fisher, Lucy Pruzan and others the Women’s Endowment Foundation, a supporting foundation that provided the seed money and for many years sustained Jewish Family Service’s Project DVORA as well as other programs benefiting women and children. For all this work, she was awarded the Shirley Bridge Power of One Award by the Women’s Endowment Foundation in 2000.
In 1993, Merrily left the Federation to become vice president of the Woodland Park Zoological Society, running the zoo’s external relations. For six years she worked to design and implement the first phase of a $125 million comprehensive private/public campaign to address the current and future capital and programmatic needs of Woodland Park Zoo. During that time, many new exhibits were funded and built, and zoo membership grew by 33 percent.
In 1999, just before her first bout with ovarian cancer, Merrily formed her own development consulting firm and counted among her clients the Cascade Land Conservancy, Museum of History and Industry, Woodland Park Zoological Society, Seattle Girl’s School, Artist Trust, Multifaith Works, and the International Snow Leopard Trust.
But Merrily’s heart was never far from the Jewish community and she remained active both as a volunteer and a professional fundraiser. Merrily provided the expertise and passion for campaigns resulting in expanded programs and beautiful new spaces for Hillel Foundation at the University of Washington, the Union of Reform Judaism’s Camp Kalsman, and the soon-to-be-constructed Jewish Family Service of Seattle. She also drafted a strategic plan for the Stroum JCC’s Early Childhood Development Center. Throughout her Jewish communal career, Merrily mentored and inspired hundreds of women professionals, volunteers and lay leaders.
In addition to her professional career, Merrily was an accomplished artist whose paintings and sculptures grace the homes of many in Seattle and elsewhere.
Merrily was married to Rabbi Anson Laytner for 24 wonderful years and between them shared three daughters: the late Amy Cordova Myers (Michael), Anna Cordova Reichstein (Daryl) and Miryam Laytner; four grandchildren whom she adored: Jackson and Nico Myers, and Gabriella and Jacob Reichstein.
Ovarian cancer claimed Merrily’s life on October 24, 2010/17 Heshvan 5770. Her funeral was held at Hillel; more than 300 people came to see her off. Devoted friend Rabbi Dan Bridge presided on that sad and rainy day.
—Barbara Maduell