Margot Child Pomeroy was a native of Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, where her father's family owned the Yellowstone Park Company, which built and operated the lodging, transportation, and tourist services to the park. Here, she and her older sister and brother lived either with the extended family in Yellowstone Park or at the Flying D Ranch south of Bozeman, Montana, which her grandfather developed as a wintering facility for the many horses required for the Yellowstone Park transportation services. Throughout her long life, Margot retained a passion for the beauty and open spaces of the park and visited with her children, Tina and Bonnie, along with other family members.
When it came time to start school (some years after her parents' separation), she and her siblings were sent to be with their mother and maternal grandparents in Memphis, Tennessee. She attended high school at Principia in St. Louis, Missouri, and spent a year at Garland College (which later became Simmons College) in Boston, Massachusetts, so that she could be near her brother and sister, who were attending college in the area.
She came to Claremont in 1932 to enroll in the second class of Scripps College, which was recommended to her grandparents by their close friend, Ellen Browning Scripps. After two years at Scripps, she met and married Harold "Hal" Becket Pomeroy (son of a pioneer Pomona Valley family). They built their home in 1937 in Claremont, where she proclaimed her lifelong love of gardening. Two years following Hal's death, in 1993, she moved to the Mt. San Antonio Gardens retirement community in Claremont.
A committed mother, Margot was deeply involved in the lives of her two daughters, was a Sunday School teacher, a Girl Scout leader, and was one of the founders of the local American Field Service (AFS) program. Her service stretched to supporting numerous musical and community organizations, along with regular help with the annual Pilgrim Place Festival, as well as serving on their board of directors for a number of years.
Margot was always open to new ideas, whether they came from classes she attended at Scripps College, the Claremont School of Theology or the University of California (UCLA), or from her work with the Blaisdell Institute in Claremont, her participation in psychological and spiritual workshops around the country, or her own quiet reading and meditation. She became a member of Claremont Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) in 1980, where her commitment to service continued. Her activity included work on the Discussion Committee, co-clerking Fellowship and Arrangements Committee, Property Committee (including making up the calendar of volunteers to clean the meetinghouse), and the board of directors. She extended her love of gardening to creating flower arrangements for the mantel piece in the meeting room. She practiced her devotion to the spiritual center of the Meeting in her membership on the Committee for Ministry and Counsel. She exercised her endless care for development of mind and spirit through her work as the person responsible for annual seminars on Religion and Psychology held at the Claremont Friends Meeting House by the Guild for Psychological Studies.
Margo's life was permanently enriched and expanded by her marriage to Magnus "Ben" Bennedsen in 1999. Friends for over forty years, they reconnected after the death of their spouses. Whether it was rafting on the Denali River in Alaska (at age 85), riding on a 3-wheeler in Ben's walnut orchards, or enjoying a quiet moment together over a homemade picnic lunch somewhere in nature, their love and devotion was a gift to each other.
She is survived by her husband, Ben Bennedsen of Claremont, her daughters, Adelaide "Bonnie" Stern and Christina "Tina" Grodem, both of the greater Portland, Oregon, area, and by a sister-in-law, 2 nephews, 5 nieces, 4 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren.
Her light continues to glow among us in Claremont Meeting.