Artist Lisa Lebow died of cancer April 26, 2002, the day before her 50th birthday. She blew glass and did graphic art and installations artwork you can walk into. She taught art at College of the Redwoods and through the Mendocino Art Center. She taught numerous school children to blow glass. She also brought in artists to teach in her studio, which was open to all.

She was born to Marcia Wilson and Ralph Lebow in 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio. Her parents were from Boston and moved to Southern California when Lisa was one year old.

She studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, the Rhode Island School of Design and the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. She then was fortunate to be among a handful of young foreigners invited to apprentice for two years in the glass factory at Orrefors, Sweden.

She met Stuart Tregoning in 1972 and moved to the Tregoning Ranch near Caspar in 1980. They worked together on her art and his building projects at the ranch and in downtown Fort Bragg. Ms. Lebow was active in the community. She was voter registration and then GOTV Chair for the Jackson '88 presidential bid in the north half of the First Congressional District. She then organized the Fort Bragg Environmental Center. It was her idea to recruit the coffeehouse tenants, a move that has been responsible for Laurel Street's social and economic growth.

She was diagnosed with melanoma in 1999. A number of different treatment modes were ultimately unsuccessful at halting one of cancer's most virulent forms. She was cremated on April 27.

She is survived by her mother, her elder brother, Roger, her sister-in-law, Wendy, and her nephew, Theo, all of Sierra Madre, Calif. She also leaves behind her friend Stuart, her old schoolmates in California, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands (with whom she always faithfully corresponded) and all those friends that she made in politics and play.

There will be a memorial service for her at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 19 at the Caspar Schoolhouse, potluck following.

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