Mary Ann Matheson passed away peacefully at home in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico on Saturday,
December 2, 2023 with her family and extended family in attendance.
Mary Ann was born in Carmel, California in 1944 to Anna and Stanley Matheson. Mary Ann
grew up in the neighboring town of Pacific Grove. After attending Pacific Grove High School,
she went to University of California, Berkeley. Mary Ann was inspired by John F. Kennedy’s
inaugural address in 1961 and joined the Peace Corps immediately after graduating from “Cal
Berkeley” in 1966. She was posted to Niger with the Peace Corps from 1966-1968 and taught
English at the secondary school level. In 1969 upon returning to the US, she married fellow
Peace Corps volunteer Mathew Morrison.
Mary Ann and Mathew lived in San Francisco and later moved to Gold Hill, Colorado where they
lived until they divorced in 1978. After leaving Gold Hill, Mary Ann decided to partake in a sitting
meditation retreat at the Lama Foundation, located outside of Taos. She ended up staying six
years at Lama and the experience transformed her outlook on life.
While at Lama, Mary Ann met her future husband Cassim Dunn. Mary Ann and Cassim loved the
Taos area and decided to base themselves there with his son, Sean, eventually marrying and
building a lovely home together in Arroyo Seco. Cassim and Mary Ann hosted a yearly “apple
squeeze” for the neighborhood which became a well-loved annual event.
Mary Ann was a talented gardener and created unusual flower beds and bouquets which were
painted by some of Taos’ most renowned artists. She was generous with her beautiful flowers
and garden vegetables, giving them to friends, neighbors and service providers, as well as
selling amazing dahlia bouquets at the weekly Farmer’s Market in Taos.
Mary Ann’s passion for meditation and cooking came together with an opportunity in 1985 to
become part of the retreat staff at St. Benedict's Monastery a Cistercian (Trappist) monastic
community in Snowmass, Colorado. She would travel to Snowmass from Taos numerous times
every year to participate in these retreats and this activity was the cornerstone of her
professional activity until 2016 when she retired to take care of her husband, Cassim.
Mary Ann was beautiful in mind, body, and spirit. She will be remembered by those who loved
her as an incredibly warm, giving, and thoughtful person, as well as a prolific traditional letter
writer. She wrote letters everyday and maintained correspondence with far-flung family and
friends all over the globe.
Mary Ann is survived by her nephew Geoff Norris and niece Mary Ann Norris, as well as her
step-daughter Shannon and step-son Sean Dunn. A memorial service will be held in 2024 once
the birds begin to sing and the flowers begin to bloom.
Arrangements by Rivera Family Funeral Home. To share a memory, please visit our website at www.riverafuneralhome.com
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About |
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| Name | Mary Ann Matheson |
| Date of Birth | 1944 |
| Date of Death | December 3rd, 2023 |
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Memorial |
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| Funeral Home | Rivera Family Funeral Home - Taos | |
| Address |
818 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur Taos NM 87571 United States |
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published a tribute .
Ma, Maryann. I recall her quiet self on the Silent Retreats in Snowmass where she cooked, soul-friended and lead the sits. Self assured, she is one of those true authentics. A great memory is watching her quickly slip on her boots, a stealthy run at dawn into the scrub oak grove a hundred feet from the retreat window facing the monastery. She retrieved the hawk feather that was shed the night before on the snow, perfect, catching the sun on the irridescence of itself. Don't think anyone noticed. She wasn't into being noticed. But she flowed that iridescence in her calm and confident presence.
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published a tribute .
MA holds a special place in my heart. I’ll never forget when I had my wedding at Lama, I was greeted by a gorgeous bouquet of flowers and a hand braided lavender stick in our cabin. I also enjoyed driving up with her to Snowmass for a centering prayer retreat. Her loving presence and deep spirituality were formative to my journey and such a gift. Thank you, Mary Ann and may you dance with the angels
published a comment .
We were in the right place, at the right time, drawn to Lama so we could meet MA (I had forgotten how those of us who loved her called her that). For me, it was like meeting God in another form. A more accessible form.
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published a tribute .
When I visited Lama Foundation for the first time over 40 years ago, I may have been 38, but I needed a mother and Mary Ann appeared. Her strength and warmth created safe space in which I could drop pretense and take off my "successful businessman" suit and just receive unconditional love. I had never met such a strong, healthy-minded woman, and she graced me with no place to hide, eliminated the need to hide. It was the place where Ram Dass said, "Come out, come out, whoever you are!" What a blessing to have met Mary Ann, and to carry her in my heart all these years! We will never be far apart.
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published a tribute .
I met Mary Ann as a very young 22 year old at Lama foundation. She was the cook. My memory is of her as a kind loving strong deep human. I remember visiting many times with her and Cassim. I never forgot her and I live in Australia and over the years would wonder and few times asked after her. I loved reading the tribute. I could feel the person I knew who I met who was a older sister friend. Almost mother in some ways.
I don’t really know what else to say except that I felt sad. I felt like another really special soul has left.
But I know her life was a good life and a true life. Bless her spirit as she lives on in those she touched with love.
Beautiful woman. I’m so glad we met.
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published a tribute .
I am so saddened to read of MaryAnn's death. I met her in the early 1970's at Lama Foundation. I had come from the San Francisco area with a group of Sufi's, including Cassim, to build a retreat hut. There I was sleeping in a big space with 9 guys! MaryAnn came to me and said, why don't you stay in my room? Which I so deeply appreciated; it was like having a fun sleepover with a girlfriend. She also had a teepee there where I could go to be alone at times. She was so bright and funny and generous. We also went into town at one point to do more laundry than I had ever seen in one place, for all the people staying at Lama, and separated it into a rainbow of colors, many separate loads of just one color each. Funny how these little experiences stick in one's mind. I am only learning of her death in February 2024. Cassim was a friend as well. I had not seen either of them in decades. I grieve with all who knew her. Qahira (Sabzpari) Francine Falk-Allen, San Rafael, Calif.
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