Retirement Party on Ferryboat Berkeley on November 23, 2003

Marguerite and her Sister Betsy are shown here leaving Marguerite's home on the way to the Berkeley for the party. This will be the end of a 26-plus-year adventure for Marguerite. Marguerite, her sister Betsy, her aunt Marga, and her cousin Peggy are all RNs.

Here Marguerite is on the Berkeley helping to set-up for the party. This is her retirement cake and behind the cake the staff is setting up an ice sculpture of a dolphin. This was the second time we used the Berkeley for a party. The first time was in 1996 when we had our celebration of our virtual wedding and Marguerite's graduation from the Union Institute for Graduate Studies where she earned her PhD.

George and Marguerite are getting ready for the party. Here they are looking over the dance floor and checking the wine and food to ensure high quality and good taste. Catering was by UCSD Healthcare's Classic Fare Catering Service.

The party consisted of appetizers, speeches, dinner, speeches, dessert, and music during the food courses. Here Marguerite is inspecting the appetizers prior to the start of the party.

Here we see Marguerite, Marga (Marguerite's aunt), Jessica (Marguerite's mother), and Betsy (Marguerite's sister). They are checking out the venue before the guests arrive. Peggy Guin, Marguerite's cousin (Marga's daughter) was at the party but not in this photo. All these ladies were staying at Marguerite's home with George. George gained an extra 10 pounds for the experience.

This is a photo of some friends on the deck of the Berkeley which overlooks San Diego Bay. John Warner is George's friend from San Jose whom George has known since Junior High School. Barbara is John's wife and Gloria is George's friend for many years.

This is a photo of the most wonderful band. They play great music from WWII to the most modern songs. You can watch a video or listen to a selection of their music at: http://www.pacificbrass.net/ . We love them so much we are going to the Rancho Bernardo Inn on New Year's Eve to ring in 2004 with this band. They also played for our 1996 party on the Berkeley. Are we loyal or what?

George kicked off the speeches after an hour of eating and dancing to the band. The speeches consisted of the old, the present, and the new in Marguerite's life.

Betsy started off the speeches with photos of Marguerite's progression through her first three decades of life. This photo announces that a "Star is Born", September 1, 1943.

Betsy lives in Orlando, Florida. Marguerite usually finds speaking engagements through Jackson Consulting to facilite visits to her sister. Betsy has been to Europe and Australia with Marguerite. When their respective husbands become old and useless they plan on touring the world together.

Carol was Mistress of Ceremonies and kept the speeches going on schedule. Everyone had lots to say about Marguerite. Samantha is a graduate student of Marguerite's and spoke for all the graduate students she has mentored throughout her career.

This is Crawford Jackson, Marguerite's first husband and father of their son Gar. Crawford has a PhD in Biology and talked about the biological work Marguerite has done in the past. Crawford and Marguerite used to go out into the swamps of Florida and Mississippi looking for biological creatures in the early 1970s.

Crawford was so happy at the party and enjoyed it so much. We were deeply shocked and saddened that a few days later he had a massive stroke and died on December 9, 2003. He was 72 years old.

This is Gar Jackson, Marguerite's son. He talked about his mother and Rob Walter, a friend of Gar's, talked about Gar's Mom and how they used to spend lots of time at her home relaxing and dreaming of the future.

This is Marguerite's ex-boss, Mary Middleton, Director of Patient Care Services and Chairperson of the Patrons of Nursing Foundation. Mary talked about Marguerite and how she enjoyed working on a worldwide basis in the healthcare field. Marguerite has established a Marguerite Jackson Award for Professional Nursing Excellance within the Patrons of Nursing Foundation. Many of her friends have given over $7,000, so far, to this Award. With the seed money of $5,000 Marguerite donated, Marguerite is on her way to establishing this award in perpetutity so that a deserving professional nurse will receive a cash award of at least $500 per year. She will donate funds each year until the award is totally funded to pay out over $500 per year to a UCSD nurse who exhibits nursing professionalism.

This is Marguerite's new boss. He is getting a hug from Marguerite after giving his speech. Thanks to Tony, Marguerite will only be virtually retired. She will have a part-time job with Tony as Administrative Director of a contract Tony received from the National Institute of Health (NIH). Tony and his colleagues will be working on a 5 year project ($6,200,000) to develop training tools to increase the knowledge of TB education within healthcare professional schools using advanced state-of-the-art internet technology. George likes the idea that Marguerite will be busy the next 5 years and will be bringing in some extra cash.

This is Marguerite thanking all her guests for coming to her party and for helping her go out with a bang. Guests came from all over the United States to be with Marguerite on this special day. She was very pleased and honored.

As you can tell from this picture, we had a large number of guests at this Retirement Party.

Near the end of the party all were well fed and some were feeling little pain. Here are a group of friends that play tennis with George from time to time.

Craig Tyndall, Scott Clifton, Dr. Nick Yphantites, Skinny George, Bob Hickman, Bob Peay, and Gar Jackson make up the group.

A thank you to all for supporting me in my career, sharing my retirement experience, and contributing to the Marguerite Jackson Award for Professional Nursing Excellence........MJ