Margaret M. Gillan

On April 20, 2019, Margaret Marie Gillan (neé Cashdollar) passed away at the age of 98 in Lowell, Michigan. Born in Pitcairn, Pennsylvania, to Homer and Hazel (Colclaser) Cashdollar, she moved with her parents and older brother to Chicago at the age of eight and forever after considered it her hometown. One of her fondest childhood memories was when she served as an unofficial tour guide for friends and family members from back east who traveled to Chicago to attend the 1933 World’s Fair. Thirteen-year-old Margaret accompanied them on the “L” into the city and then escorted them around the exhibition. It was an experience she always treasured.

After graduating from high school, Margaret moved to Detroit with her parents and briefly attended Wayne State before dropping out to get a job instead. It was a decision she later regretted, characterizing it as “foolish.” So she made sure her two children knew from the time they were very young that they were both going to graduate from college.

So, too, did her husband Thomas Gillan, thanks to Margaret’s determination and the GI Bill. They married in 1948, and it wasn’t long before they decided that a better life awaited them if Tom gave up his factory job at Ford Motor Company to enroll in college. It was not an easy path; he was already almost 30, and he needed to take more than a year’s worth of refresher courses in math and science before he could even begin working on his civil engineering degree. Then, about halfway through his education, Tom’s father died, and he ended up missing so many classes that he came close to dropping out of school. When he finally graduated at the age of thirty-five, he owed much of his subsequent success at Ford to the moral support Margaret had provided, not to mention her financial support.

Margaret worked in various office jobs throughout the 1940s and early 1950s before quitting to start a family once Tom joined the corporate world. They lived first in Detroit and then Livonia for more than three decades until Tom’s death in 1983. In 1995 she married Leonard Syrowik, a retired engineer for Detroit Edison, and moved with him to Northville, where they lived until he passed away in 2009. She then moved to Grand Rapids in 2010, residing first at Sentinel Pointe retirement community in Cascade and later at Green Acres assisted living in Lowell.

Among Margaret’s favorite things were music, chocolate, Impressionist art, cookies, old movies, pretty shoes and matching purses, chocolate, travel, ice cream, earrings of every shape and color imaginable, long walks, TV westerns, chocolate, Paris, and, of course, family and friends. One of her guiding principles in life was the sentiment often expressed by Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind—“Fiddle-dee-dee! Tomorrow’s another day.” Despite that tendency to procrastinate, Margaret always maintained a home that had to have been the cleanest and tidiest place east of the Mississippi.

Preceding Margaret in death was Thomas Gillan, the father of her two children, Debbie (Robert) Straub of Lowell, Michigan, and John (Colleen) Gillan of Marion, North Carolina, both of whom survive her. Also preceding her in death were her brothers, Gilbert Cashdollar and Harry Cashdollar, all of her first cousins, and nearly all of her longtime friends. Survivors include grandchildren Nikki (Derek) Hutton, Lanie (Chad) Hunter, and Ian (fiancée Ashley) Gillan, all of Marion, North Carolina, as well as Lexie Straub and Dayna Straub of Lowell, plus great-granddaughters Abigail Hutton and Haley Hunter. Also surviving Margaret are her nieces Dorothy (David) Summerfelt and Susan Gray, both of Lisle, Illinois, her nephew Kenny (Beth) Gillan of Linton, Indiana, and her niece Kathy (John) Howell, also of Linton.

Burial has taken place at Fairview Cemetery in Linton, Indiana. A memorial service will be held in Indiana at a later date. For those who wish, contributions in memory of Margaret can be made to the Salvation Army or Smile Train (www.smiletrain.org or 633 Third Ave., 9th Floor, New York, NY 10017). 

Our family wishes to extend our heartfelt thanks to the caregivers of Green Acres of Lowell and Kindred Hospice for the attention and compassion they showered on Margaret, particularly during the last few months of her life. They made a difficult time much easier to bear.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Margaret M. Gillan, please visit our floral store.