Family of Mary Kay Fyda-Mar

Supporter Profile


Mary Kay fell in love with Chance Theater after she attended It’s A Wonderful Life, The Musical many years ago. She soon became a Chance Member and later joined the Board of Directors. After retiring from The Boeing Company, where she worked for 27 years, Mary Kay happily devoted as much time as she could to the theater.

Mary Kay was born in Pennsylvania, raised in Ohio, and moved to Orange County in 1977. She obtained Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Michigan State University and held a National Science Foundation Fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mary Kay served as a senior examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program and a judge for the California Awards for Performance Excellence. She was an active member of Altrusa International of Anaheim, where she served on the Board and was the chairperson of the literacy committee. She was also a proud quilter for Project Linus, an organization that provides handmade security blankets to children in trauma.

Sadly, Mary Kay passed away in October of 2017. She is survived by her daughter Christina, as well as her siblings, nieces, and nephews. We at the Chance will always treasure the all-too-brief time we had with Mary Kay, and we proudly honor her memory and carry on her legacy.