This tribute was written by David and Marge Steward.
Sarah (Sally) Duncombe crossed our lives first when we were students in New Haven, Connecticut. She and her husband, David, lived on a New England farm with barns and hardwood trees whose colors covered the skies in the Fall. The farm was marked by hewn, unmortered stone walls, extended as the handiwork of David.
Late in her life she lived in full view of Mt. Hood. The meadows behind their home were, in season, filled with flowers and with her footprints year round. She read voraciously, and enjoyed especially the Sitka local color of John Straley’s novels.
Sally used the rich texture of her natural and intellectual world to train her eye and hand to draw and carve and weave beautiful, natural lines. Throughout her life, her daily work included children– her own and those of others – who received from Sally an introduction into the beauty of both worlds.
Sally was first an artist and next a wonderful educator of young children. It is her “eye” for beauty and her ability to draw such discernment from all around her that we want to remember. She has taught us where and how to look for beauty in life – including the wild areas in which we now live.