May 12, 1955- August 9, 2023
Mary Lizabeth Grady died peacefully on Aug. 9, 2023, at the Island Crest Adult Family Home on Mercer Island, surrounded by her family.
Mary was born May 12, 1955, in Pullman, Washington, to Marc and Rita Swindal. She graduated from Pullman High School in 1973 and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois in 1978, as well as a master’s in resource economics from Washington State University in 1983. She married Kevin Grady of Seattle in 1980.
In the 1980s, Mary worked for Puget Sound Energy as the Manager of Load Research and Forecasting, and Staff Economist. With the birth of her daughters in the 1990s, Mary contracted with the Seattle branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to research and write economic forecasts.
She then turned her career focus to reporting, receiving a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Washington in 2001. In 2002, Mary took a position as a staff writer/education reporter for the Mercer Island Reporter. This experience culminated in her eventually taking on the editorship of the newspaper in 2006. Mary became a regional editor with the addition of the Bellevue Reporter and Issaquah Reporter in 2014-2015. The Reporter papers she wrote for and managed, won numerous General Excellence awards from the Washington State Newspaper Publisher Association and the Society of Professional Journalists for science reporting. Mary also served a term on the Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and served on the Mercer Island Utilities Board.
Born and raised in Pullman, Mary never forgot that she was an “eastsider” with a love for wheat-bedecked rolling hills and the Cougars. Characteristically she was straightforward and direct — all with her wry wit and sonorous laugh. In recent years, she also enjoyed visiting Hawaiian beaches and Canadian lakes with family and friends.
Her family was the rock from which she drew, and shared her love and strength. Her parents, lifetime community volunteers, were the source of her inspiration to serve others. She leaves her sisters Patricia, and Catherine, who predeceased her, brothers Jim and John, her beloved husband Kevin, and daughters Maria and Kelly.
Her life will be celebrated at a Catholic funeral Mass at 11 a.m. on Sept. 9, 2023, at St. Bridget Church, 4900 NE 50th St., Seattle. Internment will be private.
