Obituaries : Mary Ann Off; Helped Start Hospital Group

Mary Ann Off, a founding member of the Community Memorial Hospital Auxiliary in Ventura and wife of the owner of Ojai Oil Co., has died after a prolonged illness. She was 64.

A Ventura resident, Off helped found the Community Memorial Hospital Auxiliary 30 years ago. The auxiliary assembles volunteers to run the hospital’s information desk, lend books to patients and perform errands for medical staff.

Off was born as Mary Ann Green to a family of orange growers in the town of Lindsay in the San Joaquin Valley.

She graduated from Stanford University in 1951 and moved to Ventura when she married Theodore Off, owner of Ojai Oil Co.

Theodore Off’s father, Charles F. Off, was a longtime civic leader in Los Angeles who had been closely identified with the development of the oil industry in Southern California.

In Ventura, Mary Ann Off’s volunteer activities included raising money in the early 1950s to found the Assistance League of Ventura County’s preschool in Oxnard for developmentally disabled children.

She was remembered by friends and family as an outdoors enthusiast who enjoyed skiing and tennis. Her favorite hobby was tending the garden of her Ventura home, friends said.

“She loved her garden,” said Virginia Merrill, a friend of the family. “If she knew you were having a bad day, she’d come by with a little bouquet of flowers.”

Merrill said that Off overcame a bout with cancer in the early 1970s but that her health began failing soon after.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by son Thad of Tipton, Calif., daughter Tracy Stansfield of Draper, Utah, and a grandson. She also leaves two brothers, Eugene Green of Stockton, and Adrian Green of Three Rivers, Calif.

Services will be held 10 a.m. Monday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Ventura. Arrangements are being handled by Ted Mayr Mortuary in Ventura.