Marion Malouf; Arts Patron, Fund-Raiser

Marion Nassour Malouf, a former California mother of the year, a patron of the arts and a major fund-raiser for 20 charitable organizations, has died. She was 82.

Malouf died Sunday of cancer at her Holmby Hills home.

“She is organized, efficient, prompt, sweet, conservative,” her sister, Sara Gabriel, once told The Times. “Wherever she’s needed, she’s there--without any scene.”

Known for growing prized cymbidium orchids, Malouf regularly provided 800 blooms for table decorations for the annual Orchid Ball. She also served as chairwoman of the ball--a fund-raiser for the National Arts Assn., which she helped to found.

She also co-founded the Americana Associates and Diadames of the Child Care League and helped to found the ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation, which has raised nearly $20 million for college scholarships.

Malouf was a trustee of the California Museum Foundation and the California Museum of Science and Industry.

She had served as president of the National Charity League, the Bookworms of the Assistance League and the Lifelighters and chaired fund-raising balls for the Bookworms and the Lifelighters.

Malouf was a founding member of the Los Angeles County Music Center, served as president of the Women’s Committee of the Philharmonic Orchestra and worked with the center’s Encore and Heritage groups, the Opera Guild of Southern California and the Southern California Symphony Assn.

Among the other charities for which she worked were the Associates of the House Ear Institute, the Costume Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the League for Children, the Beverly Hills Garden Club, Le Dames of Los Angeles Hostesses, the Parents Assns. for Harvard, the Marlborough and John Thomas Dye Schools, the Friends of the Hollywood Bowl and the Associates of the French Foundation for Alzheimer’s Research.

Born in Colorado Springs as one of the nine children of Abram and Rhoda Nassour, she moved to Los Angeles with her family when she was a teenager. One of her sisters married her husband’s brother and another married his cousin, and the three women became well known in Los Angeles social and charitable circles as simply “the Maloufs.” The Malouf family, originally Lebanese silk and tannery merchants, had founded the Mode O’ Day clothing store chain in 1935. Malouf’s husband, Bert, died in 1964.

She is survived by three children, Marlene Malouf Hall and Robert Malouf of Los Angeles and Merna Malouf McWhorter of Lewiston, Idaho; three sisters, Florence Nassour Malouf and Sara Nassour Gabriel of Los Angeles and Ester Nassour Nasser of Hillsborough, Calif.; five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Malouf’s own orchids will be used to decorate the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood for her funeral at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. Lloyd John Ogilvie, former pastor of the church and currently chaplain of the U.S. Senate, will conduct the service.

The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to the ARCS Foundation, 1384 Avenue de Cortez, Pacific Palisades, Calif. 90272.