Martha Siefkin Gordon, of Bainbridge Island, died on Nov. 26 at Island Health & Rehabilitation. She was 86.

Born February 14, 1922 in Wichita, Kan., she grew up in Glencoe, Ill., and attended Swarthmore College, later graduating with a degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago.

An independent woman well ahead of her time, her first career was as a wage analyst with the War Labor Board in Chicago.

She then joined the WAVES for the duration of World War II, teaching celestial navigation to Naval Air Cadets at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla. There she met her husband John, a decorated Navy pilot.

After the war they moved to California and for 20 years raised their family of five sons on an avocado farm in San Diego County.

Seeking adventure and new land to develop, the family emigrated to Australia in 1967 to spend the next 15 years planting and cultivating large citrus and avocado orchards on the Murray River in South Australia.

Finding that schools were in great need of library personnel, Martha became a high school librarian in Adelaide and Renmark, South Australia. Later she entered the Graduate School of Social Work at Flinders University, focusing on family therapy. In Australia and on her return to the United States in 1982, she worked in agencies serving children and families in crisis.

After living for five years in Raleigh, N.C., she moved to Boulder, Colo., followed by a move in 2000 to Bainbridge Island to be close to her family. On Bainbridge Island, Martha became well known as a bridge teacher at the senior center.

She was an avid bridge player; was deeply informed and passionate about politics; and enjoyed reading, music and gardening.

She taught her children and grandchildren many things including the importance of family and social involvement, along with the joys of card playing, tea parties, knitting, spying the wild trillium blooming in the woods, building fairy rings, and polishing petosky stones in her beloved Old Mission, Mich., woodlands. She also had a delightful sense of humor.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Jan. 3 at Eagle Harbor Congregational Church. Charitable contributions can be made to Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers or to Hospice of Kitsap County.