Darlene Marie (Marjaniemi) Kunz

Darlene was born on May 24, 1948, at St. Lukes hospital in Marquette to a loving family of three older brothers and later a younger sister.

She grew up in the community of Dukes where her parents, Seeli and Helen Marjaniemi, operated a small general store and U.S. Post Office. Darlene was a member of Emanuel Lutheran Church and attended Graveraet High School until 1963 when her family moved to Cupertino, California.

Darlene graduated from the University of the Pacific in Stockton with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. She attended graduate school at the University of California in Berkely and later San Jose State University where she earned a Master’s Degree in Mathematics.

She married Jeffery Ruble in 1971 and they have two children: Peter and Rachael. They settled in San Luis Obispo and for a time Darlene was employed as a Mathematics instructor at California Polytechnic State University.

They later moved to the Seattle, Washington area where Darlene taught Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science at the University of Puget Sound from 1984 to1990. She was employed in Computing Security at Boeing Aircraft Company from 1990 to 2010. Her husband, also employed by Boeing, died in 2000.

She married Robert Kunz in 2003 and they moved to a new house in Sequim where they enjoyed the recreational atmosphere of the area just north of the Olympic Mountains.

Darlene will be missed because of her sweet nature and mild manner inherited from her Finnish immigrant grandparents.

She is remembered for the wonderful memories she created as a sister. Activities while growing up included: Ice skating on the pond near our home and sledding on the local hills. Collecting sap for maple syrup in the spring and many summer hours spent picking raspberries in a nearby field. Warm evenings and weekend days at the cottage on Lake Au Train. And later, in the fall, planting tulip bulbs for flowers that would bloom in the spring.

Darlene is survived by her husband, Robert Kunz, her children Peter and Rachael, Brothers Cecil and Daryle, and Sister Cheryle Micali. She is predeceased by her parents, Seeli and Helen Marjaniemi, a sister Darlene Anne, and a brother Darwin.