July 26, 2021 by Philip Lewenstein

My Aunt Marion: Pioneering Journalist and Revered Stanford Professor

Typically, a professor at a college or university comes to the position with extensive educational credentials such as a doctor’s degree in a specialized field of study.

A notable exception was my aunt, Marion Lewenstein, an educator who was not formally college educated yet who became a revered professor at Stanford University and helped put journalism education on the map at this leading private university.

Marion was a trailblazer, pioneer, and pathfinder in many aspects of her life. She was a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, friend, mentor, role model, caregiver, journalist, businesswoman, and educator.

I knew a little about her work as a freelance journalist, the creator of the first falafel restaurant in Palo Alto, California, and a teacher at Stanford. But after she died at age 93 on March 6, I learned much more about her accomplishments, particularly the esteem in which she was held by colleagues, students, family, and friends.

Information and insight into Marion’s life have been provided in eulogies by family and friends, obituaries, and articles by Stanford News and Stanford Magazine.

Marion was one of the first journalists to cover what would become known as Silicon Valley. From the mid-1950s, she reported for Electronic News, first on staff and then, after her children were born, as a freelancer.

“She played a pioneering role covering the technology beat in the San Francisco Bay Area,” said Harry Lowood, curator of Stanford University’s History of Science & Technology collection.  By the 1960s, she had established a reputation for covering science and technology in the region that became Silicon Valley.”

Marion also wrote for Time, Fortune, Postgraduate Medicine, and other publications. In 1969, she did the background research and wrote the initial copy for a story that traced the lineage of electronics companies founded by people who had worked at Fairchild Semiconductor.

“Marion was the consummate reporter,” professor emeritus Don Roberts told Stanford Magazine (“Journalist Who Pioneered Coverage of Silicon Valley,” by Melina Walling, July 2021). “Marion was interested in everything. She could sit down with anyone, even complete strangers, and be in deep conversation in 60 seconds.”

Marion’s curiosity overcame her lack of background in technology and business, as she recalled in a 2014 interview for the Stanford Historical Society.

“Some of the amusing situations were because I was always worried about not understanding the technical part of (the coverage),” Marion said. “And sometimes my (sources) would ask me, ‘Do you have a degree in physics?’ ‘No.’ ‘What paper did you work for before?’ And I would say, keeping my face straight, ‘Women’s Wear Daily.’”

In 1970, Marion and her friend Jan Nix, a local food writer, created the first falafel shop in Palo Alto. Marion had tasted the food during a 1968 family trip to Israel, and Jan had tasted it while living with her family among an international community of expatriates in Japan. Marion had dreamed of owning her own restaurant since working as a waitress at Howard Johnson’s while in high school.

Their Mediterranean Sandwich Shop was open only at lunch and served through an open window onto the sidewalk. Although the restaurant was successful, the women sold it after several years when their families complained that it was taking too much of their time.

As women starting their own business during the early years of the women’s movement, Marion and Jan were covered by the local media. Consequently, Marion became known to the Communication Department at Stanford. Under threat of a law suit from discriminating against women, Stanford in 1975 hired Marion to teach journalism.

“When, she got offered the job, she was floating on air,” her son, Bruce, a professor of science communication at Cornell, told Stanford Magazine.

Marion’s initial appointments were short term. In 1978, she won Stanford’s top teaching award for service to undergraduate education. She was soon hired permanently and attained the rank of professor even though her college education was limited to a year or two of community-college credits over the preceding 30 years.

Marion specialized in teaching basic journalism skills but also taught history and other courses. In 1981, she was named the Outstanding Journalism Educator in four-year colleges by the California Newspaper Publishers Association. In 1991, she was selected as Academic Secretary to the Faculty Senate and served in that role until 1994.

“Marion Lewenstein was a pathbreaker,” said Jay Hamilton, the Hearst Professor of Communication in Stanford’s School of Humanities and Science, chair of the Department of Communication, and director of the Stanford journalism program. “She excelled in the classroom and was integral to the establishment of the Rowland and Pat Rebele Journalism Internship Program, which has allowed hundreds of Stanford students across more than three decades to pursue reporting internships.”

Marion was also a key supporter of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships program at Stanford, which supports diverse journalists from around the world who are creating solutions to journalism’s most urgent problems.

“She was so gracious in welcoming me to campus and to the fellowship,” said Dawn Garcia, John S. Knight Journalism fellowships director. “I always saw her as a wise advisor who made you the focus of the conversation. And she had lasting impact; she was also a model of what a woman leader in her 70s, 80s, and 90s could be.”

James Risser, director of the Fellowships program from 1985 to 2000 recalled that “Marion was a rare combination of skillful journalist and dedicated educator.”

Marion retired in 1995 but continued to teach part-time. She became involved in early research on how people consumed news through the internet. She fully retired in 2001. During her career, Marion served as a consultant for many newspapers.

“Marion was a wonderfully generous teacher and colleague,” said Fred Turner, the Harry and Norman Chandler Professor of Communication. “She kept the importance of good journalism front and center for all of us.”

Marion and her late husband, Harry Lewenstein, also served as a resident fellow in Schiff House. She co-chaired the Board of Trustees Special Committee on Investment Responsibility and taught at Stanford’s programs in Florence and Oxford. She was a member of the Writing Across the Curriculum task force in 1984 that recommended a writing-intensive requirement.

“Mom and dad established lasting relationships with students,” says son Bruce. “She left a kind of impression on people that, 30 years later, they wanted to stop in and say hello.”

“Marion was one of those rare teachers who always listened,” says Roberts. “It’s a marvelous quality.” She was known for teaching and mentoring staff and new faculty.

Marion Marcus was born October, 15, 1927, in Cleveland, Ohio, the youngest of four children. Her father left the family when she was three. By the time of World War II, her two-oldest siblings had left home. Her remaining brother was killed in an aviation accident over Britain during the war. Marion graduated high school in 1945 but was unable to attend college full time because of the Great Depression’s effect on family finances. She turned down several college scholarships.

Soon after the war, Marion’s family moved to San Francisco to be closer to relatives. Seeking work as a journalist, she was told she lacked experience. Marion was hired as a secretary by a trade-publishing company. She convinced her employers to let her start covering small stories, and they hired her as a reporter for Home Furnishings Daily and Women’s Wear Daily.

In 1955, Marion married my uncle, Harry Lewenstein, an electronics engineer who worked in technical marketing. She asked her employer to transfer her to its new publication, Electronic News, to share Harry’s interest. Her reporting often was featured on the front page because, as Marion told an interviewer for the Stanford Historical Society Oral History Project, “This was where everything was happening.”

Marion was praised for her role as a role-model for women trying to combine family life with careers. In the early 1970s, she contributed two chapters to a book, Second Careers for Women, sponsored by Stanford as part of a movement recognizing the changing workplace.

Marion became a devoted caregiver in 1997 when Harry fell and broke his neck while they were cycling across southern Portugal. He was a quadriplegic until his death in 2010.

Marion knew everybody in the newspaper business and in journalism education. Several years ago, I met with the director of the University of Minnesota journalism program. His first question was, “Are you related to Marion?”  Another time while in Minnesota, she stayed with the manager of the Minnesota Newspaper Association.

Throughout her life, Marion was devoted to journalism, to a love of learning and teaching, to her students’ success, and to her family.  She was a trailblazer, pioneer, and pathfinder.