Tama Silverstein Louden, 62
PORTLAND – Tama Silverstein Louden died on Sept. 4, 2015 at the Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough with her family members at her bedside. The cause of death was metastatic pancreatic cancer.
Born (Oct. 24, 1952) and raised in Milwaukee, Wis., Tama graduated with a B.A. in history from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1975. After college, she moved to New England, eventually enrolling at Boston University to pursue graduate work, where she earned a master’s degree in City Planning in 1979. Excited over her first full-time professional job offer after graduate school, she then moved to Augusta where she joined a federally funded state agency which soon lost its funding under the Reagan administration. Tama next moved to Portland, where she began taking courses at the University of Southern Maine, earning a second bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1984.
Tama and her future husband Robert first met in a tennis class at USM’s Sullivan Gymnasium in winter 1983. She was initially skeptical when he introduced himself as an assistant professor at the university, apparently because of the dilapidated condition of the clothes that he regularly wore to tennis class. But after he showed her the small house he had recently purchased on Portland’s West End, she consented to go out with him. Tama and Robert were married in Milwaukee on May 19, 1985. After a honeymoon in Quebec, they returned to Portland where – except for two exciting years in Marburg, Goettingen, and Muenster Germany as well as a semester at Emory University in Atlanta during the 1990s – they have lived ever since.
After their daughters Elizabeth Mary (b. Jan. 26, 1987) and Sarah Rebecca (b. Oct. 26, 1988) were born, Tama gradually realized that it was neither city planning nor accounting that captivated her, but rather photography. Largely self-taught but also an occasional photography student at the Portland School of Art (now the Maine College of Art) and USM, since the mid-1990s her photographs have been shown at a variety of local venues, including the art gallery at the Maine Jewish Museum, the Maine Coast Artists Gallery, the Portland Chamber of Commerce, the Chocolate Church Gallery in Bath, Portland Parks and Recreation, and the Portland Public Library. She has also done several book cover illustrations for Oxford University Press.
Tama is survived by her husband Robert; and their daughters Elizabeth and Sarah, all currently of Portland; and her sister Susan Silverstein of Philadelphia.
The Louden family would like to thank the staff at New England Cancer Specialists, Scarborough, and the Gosnell Memorial Hospice House for the excellent care they gave to Tama during the difficult final days of her life.
Tama’s funeral service will be held at Etz Chaim Synagogue (267 Congress St., Portland) on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015 at 11 a.m., followed by interment at Evergreen Cemetery (672 Stevens Ave., Portland). Immediately following internment, shiva will be observed at the Loudens’ house (96 Clinton St., Portland) from 2-4 p.m.
Arrangements by The Jewish Funeral Home, Portland.
In lieu of flowers, the Loudens
would like to suggest that a
donation be made either to:
Etz Chaim Synagogue or
to the USM Foundation
(reference: In Memory of Tama Louden – General Scholarships)