‘Professor’ Keeps Them Laughing While Packing

Marilyn G. Maxwell is a world traveler with a knack for packing a suitcase.

In fact, she regards herself as a professional packer, and despite her lack of a college degree, she has affectionately been dubbed a “professor of packing” by her students.

And why not?

She spends most of her time these days in Coastline Community College classrooms teaching a course on travel geography and showing others the fine art of packing, such as loading 56 changes of outfits into a 26-inch suitcase.

Maxwell figures 25 years as a ticket agent for United Airlines--14 of those at the airline’s Disneyland office--and her world travels qualify her for a degree.

But she is content with her teaching role.

“The classroom is where I do my best work,” said the Garden Grove woman who has traveled outside the United States for 30 consecutive years, the last six using the same suitcase.

“You buy the right one and you keep it,” is the advice she offers to the people in her packing classes.

“I should know what is best for everyone,” she said. “I’ve used them all.”

Besides college classrooms, she also gives packing demonstrations at dress shops and area offices of the Automobile Club, often attracting as many as 40 students to each session.

Maxwell enjoys demonstrating the fine art of packing a suitcase and talking about places she has traveled. But the self-styled comedienne insists that the biggest thrill is “the crowd, and performing. I like people and I know how to work an audience.”

She feels the best way to keep a class interested is to keep it laughing.

“When I lecture on geography or packing, I say funny things. When people enjoy where they are and what they are doing, it makes a marked impression on their life, “ said the mother of three grown children.

“I raised them on an airplane,” added Maxwell, who never reveals her age.

“If I told people how old I was, it would put thoughts in their mind,” said the one-time toy store saleswoman, who likes to repeat the answer she once gave.

“I told the woman I never give out my age, but I’m just like coffee. I’m going to be good to the last drop,” said Maxwell, who says she’s too busy teaching and traveling to think about retiring.

Maxwell sold her condominium a few years ago, bought a motor home she named “Sherman the Tank” and embarked on a solo two-year driving trip through the United States and Canada.

“I had planned on writing a book during the trip, but I just got so carried away with the people I met that I ended up with no time to write,” said Maxwell.

One solo motor home trip, however, is enough, says the divorced woman.

“Motor home trips are really meant for two people,” Maxwell said.