Gloria Williamson Obituary

Gloria Maria Williamson March 30, 1932 - June 11, 2025

Gloria Maria Williamson passed away peacefully in her sleep Wednesday morning, June 11, 2025 from complications of Alzheimer's Disease. She had very recently gone into Bloom Hospice care at MorningStar Memory Care.

Gloria Maria Sepulveda Rivas was born March 30, 1932 in Bario Jacanas, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, to Antonio Sepulveda and Juana Rivas. Her mother died a year later and she was brought up by an aunt and uncle in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. She went to elementary and high school there. She obtained a bachelor's degree in Physics from University of Puerto Rico and a master's degree in Meteorology from New York University.

Following graduate school she worked at Grumman Aerospace on Long Island followed by a period with an atmospheric research firm outside Boston. In 1968 she joined the National Center for Atmospheric Research as an Associate Scientist working in global atmospheric modeling. She originally intended to stay in such a small, sleepy town as Boulder for only a few years then return to a vibrant East Coast city. But she fell in love with the area and never wanted to leave.

She met her future husband, David Williamson, at NCAR and they were married November 24, 1971. After retiring from NCAR, Gloria studied Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, in the Sogetsu School. She rose to the level of Komon.

She is survived by her husband of 53 years.