Mary Helen Kappagoda
b.12 May 1942 d.29 November 2021
M.B.B.S. University of St. Andrews, Scotland (1965)
Mary Helen Kappagoda was born in Manchester, England, the daughter of Bernard Maguire, a physician, and Ellen Nestor, a nurse. She grew up in Manchester, in the Old Trafford neighborhood, home to the famed Manchester United football team. She was educated at St. Andrews University, from which she received her medical degree in 1965 at the age of 23. She also received a post-graduate diploma in the assessment of handicapped children from the University of Leeds in 1977. Mary worked for the United Kingdom’s National Health Service from 1965 to 1977. She held posts in General Medicine, General Surgery and Anesthesia. She also worked as a community health officer.
In 1970, she married Tissa Kappagoda, a fellow physician, and they had two daughters, Manel Kappagoda and Shanthi Kappagoda.
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Mary Kappagoda
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The Kappagoda couple in earlier days
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Mary with her Grand-daughter Ruby
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In 1978, the family moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where Tissa had been appointed a professor of medicine at the University of Alberta. While in Canada, she worked as a public health researcher and the director of a clinical trials company that she founded with Tissa. After more than a decade in Canada, the family moved to Davis, California where Tissa took up a post at the University of California at Davis. She lived in Sacramento, California until her death. She loved working in her garden, taking exercise classes at the gym, going to the casino to use the slot machines, and spending time with her family. Throughout her life, she traveled extensively and had friends in many countries including England, Sri Lanka, and Canada.
Mary leaves behind her daughter, Manel, and son-in-law, Wally; her daughter, Shanthi, and son-in-law, Aaron; and three grand-daughters, Willow, Ruby and Luna. She will be remembered for her kindness, quirky sense of humor, and fierce independence even in her later years.
