Family and friends celebrate the life of Terry Ambler Macdougall. On February 23, 2022, she passed away peacefully after a long life to be with her husband of 66 years, Iver Cameron Macdougall. Terry was a wonderful, loving partner and parent, full of attention, care, and wisdom, and a giving, engaged member of the community.
Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1933 to Dorothy Ambler and Terrance Maunsell, Terry left home at 18, determined to make her way in the world. She moved to Denver and then San Francisco, where she met Iver. They married there at Grace Cathedral in 1955. Later moving east to Chappaqua, New York, Terry began her lifetime of volunteer work, starting at the local hospital, and later at Planned Parenthood and for a local crisis hotline. Her love of people moved her to go to college at the State University of New York at Purchase where she earned a degree in psychology in 1977. Moving back west to Bainbridge Island, Washington in 1978, she and Iver made a new home there in a community that embraced them. Terry began work at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, taking the ferry across Puget Sound to work every day. Later, she was an important volunteer at Bainbridge Island Helpline, the island’s multiservice assistance agency. In all of these endeavors she used her superb people skills to help people – listening, offering ideas and options, and touching hearts with hers to help build humanity. She also became a Master Gardener to learn and teach others about the beautiful plants she loved so much. Her joyous garden on South Beach was her canvas.
Terry will be dearly missed but her gifts to her family and community resonate. Terry and Iver are now in each other’s arms again after five months apart. She is survived by their children, Bruce, Alison, and Gordon, and by their four grandchildren, who will always love their Grammy.
Arrangements are entrusted to the Cook Family Funeral Home of Bainbridge Island.
There will be service and celebration for Terry at Grace Church on Bainbridge Island (8595 NE Day Road) on Sunday, March 27, 2022 starting at about 1:00pm. All are welcome. The service will also for shown on live video via this link: https://www.gracehere.org/worship-with-us/
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating in Terry’s name to: Bainbridge Island Helpline at: https://www.helplinehouse.org/donation-types, or to the Bainbridge Island Library at: https://www.bainbridgepubliclibrary.org/make-a-donation.aspx.
