Tamano, Ikuko's Obituary
Ikuko Tamano (1941–2024)
We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of Ikuko Tamano on December 15, 2024, in San Diego, California, due to complications following a fall. She was 83 years old.
She was born in 1941 to Kazumasa and Toshi Morita, in Toyama, Japan, where she grew up with her sisters, Shoko and Koko, and her brother, Hitoshi. Ikuko attended Tokyo Woman’s Christian University, where she studied mathematics. After graduating, she worked at Miyamoto Laboratory in the Physics Department of the University of Tokyo, where she met her future husband, Teruo Tamano. They were married in Tokyo on November 2, 1964. She and Teruo moved to the United States in 1968, first to Princeton, New Jersey, and then a year later to San Diego, California, where they lived for the next 55 years.
They had a daughter, Akiko, and a son, Yuichi, and Ikuko devoted their childhood years to full-time homemaking. But she also had many hobbies and interests. An art and music lover, she enjoyed painting and singing choral and opera music, and even taught herself to play classical piano as an adult. She was an avid gardener and fed her family with an abundance of homegrown vegetables and fruits. Her logical and curious mind made her a lifelong learner—she went back to school in 1988 and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from the University of California, San Diego. And she worked as a medical translator and college math instructor and volunteered at the Braille Institute.
Ikuko is survived by her husband, Teruo, her sister, Koko, and her children, Akiko and Yuichi, who will all greatly miss her teachings, laughter, and love.
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, December 27, in the Garden Chapel at Greenwood Memorial Park (4300 Imperial Ave., San Diego, CA 92113).
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