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Clarissa Matteson Parsons Fuller, 97, died Tuesday, April 24, 2001 after a long period of failing health. Clarissa was born into a distinguished family in Chicago, IL, in July 1903. Her mother, Clara Matteson Doolittle, was a graduate of Smith College, Northhampton, MA. Her father, Harry Robert Parsons, was an attorney and a noted bass singer in Chicago area oratorios as well as an outstanding athlete. The family, including Clarissa and her brothers, William Sterling Parsons and Critchell Parsons, moved to Fort Sumner, NM in the early 1900s. Her half-brother, Harry Robert Parsons, continues to live there. William Sterling Parsons graduated from Annapolis and became a physicist and Rear Admiral. He was closely involved with the beginnings of radar and the proximity fuse, and was one of the pioneers of the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. He was the 'weaponeer" on the Enola Gay, which dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, effectively ending World War II in the Pacific. Critchell Parsons graduated from UNM, where he won the Sigma Chi Balfour Award and went on to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Clarissa Fuller received three academic degrees from UNM where she was a member of the Phi Mu Sorority, Mortar Board and Phi Kappa Phi, and was one of the first women to earn her doctorate. She was married to Rice Bagby "Doc" Fuller, and is survived by two children, Dr. F.W. Fuller of Short Hills, NJ, and Hester Fuller Eastham, of Albuquerque; eight grandchildren, William, Clarissa, Miranda, Sebastian, and Nicholas Eastham, and Julie Fallon, Hester Fuller and Rice Bagby Fuller; as well as five great-grandchildren. Other survivors are her half-brother; and three nieces, Peggy Bowdich, Clare Parsons and Sandra Parsons. A Memorial Eucharist will be held at the Cathedral Church of St. John, Saturday, April 28, 2001 at 4:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, those who wish may make contributions in memory of Clarissa Fuller to UNM Foundation Inc. 700 Lomas Blvd. NE Suite 203, 87131 or to the Cathedral Church of St. John in memory of Clarissa Fuller, PO Box 1246, Albuquerque, NM 87103.
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