Barbara Ann (Bambi) Markel passed away peacefully in her sleep at age 57 on Tuesday, December 20th, 2016. She was ill with pneumonia and given her compromised lung capacity due to prior surgeries, the pneumonia was fatal.

Her education reflected her expansive mind and curious intellect. After she graduated with a BA from Stanford, she won a fellowship for a year of work, study, and travel in Israel. She learned Hebrew at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and then went on to learn Arabic at Oxford and in Cairo. She had an MS in Philosophy in Arabic Studies from Oxford and an MBA from Yale. She then followed her true passion and studied at the San Francisco Institute of Art where she created award-winning installation art.

Although in pain for many years because of a ski accident, she had an upbeat spirit. The sparkle in her eyes and her warmth radiated through her pain. Her kindness knew no bounds. We will miss her wit, humor and, loving nature. A light in our lives has gone out.

Services were private. At her request, she was cremated and her family scattered her ashes in Buzzard’s Bay. She loved the water and would go out in any vessel available, although preferred sailboats to all others. If you are out there on the water, think of her spirit there along with you.

She will be remembered with boundless love by her mother, Janet Markel, her partner Peter Miller, her sister Diana Markel and her brother-in-law Bryan Fishback. Niece and nephew, Ana and Max Fishback, will always have a place in their hearts for their Aunt Bambi. Her father Myron Markel and her step-father Barry Lhormer predeceased her.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Community Boating Center, Inc., 1641 Padanaram Avenue, New Bedford, MA 02740 (www.communityboating.org), a non-profit organization which teaches positive life values to youth through boating.