Marilyn Lynch, Arts Patron, Dead at 69

Marilyn H. Lynch, a longtime volunteer and patron of music, ballet and theater in Orange County, died Wednesday. She was 69.

A lifelong arts lover, Lynch graduated with a degree in music from Stanford University in 1950. She sang for numerous church choirs and other groups, and served as director of the South Coast Repertory and director and treasurer of Ballet Pacifica in Irvine. She also passed on her interests--her daughter Molly Lynch has been artistic director at Ballet Pacifica for a decade.

“She was a woman of real style and wit--a wonderful person,” said Marica Pendjer, Ballet Pacifica’s marketing director.

She recalled Lynch’s efforts that ranged from organizing gala fund-raisers to applying mouse makeup to young performers in “The Nutcracker.”

“The children loved her. She was really kind of a mother to everyone here at the company,” Pendjer said.

“She was an institution here,” she said. “Everyone can still feel her presence, and it will be that way for a long time.”

In addition to her daughter, Molly, Lynch is survived by her husband, Frank, of Corona del Mar; daughter, Kathryn, an English professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts; and three grandchildren. No memorial service is planned, and in lieu of flowers, donations are requested for Ballet Pacifica, South Coast Repertory, the Corona del Mar Baroque Music Festival or the Patty and George Hoag Cancer Center in Newport Beach.