Martha “Marty” Godchaux, who died Sunday, July 9, 2023, was born in Salem, Mass., on May 2, 1941, to Donald and Ruth (Shaw) Miller, of Swampscott, Mass., and raised in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. She went to grade school at Barnard School in South Hampton, N.H., and high school in Amesbury, Mass. Her senior year was at Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, Mass., from which, in 1958, she graduated with honors, as one of only five honor students in a class of seventy. The family had little money, and Marty and her older sister had to work very hard to attain college educations. Both succeeded, largely due to the example set by their mother. Marty graduated from Wellesley College in June 1962, with a bachelor of arts in geology and continued her studies at the University of Oregon, culminating in 1969, in a Ph.D. in geology. She taught a wide variety of geology courses at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., from 1971 to 1999, as well as serving as the geology and geography department chairperson for much of her time on the Mount Holyoke faculty.
In 1988, Marty moved from Massachusetts to Moscow, to be with Bill Bonnichsen, whom she married Nov. 11, 1989. While living in Moscow she returned to Mount Holyoke during the spring semesters to teach her courses until she retired in 1999. She then was employed by the Idaho Geological Survey researching Idaho’s geological features, alongside her husband, Bill. She stars, along with Bill, in the 2012 Idaho Public Television program, “Idaho Geology, A Convergence of Wonders” as part of the Outdoor Idaho series of documentaries.
Marty’s main emphasis in geology was the study of, and teaching about, volcanoes. She had many other interests, including long-distance running, skiing, ice skating, bicycling, writing articles and poetry, gourmet cooking, needlework and other crafts, singing folk songs and operatic music, acting, traveling, learning languages, gardening, and helping her students and family. In 1983, at the age of 41, she ran in the Boston Marathon, completing the race with a very respectable time of about three hours and twenty minutes. In Moscow, for many years, she was a member of the Science on Ice organization, the Moscow Sister City Association and helped with the Family Promise program. Some of her greatest enjoyment came from her membership in the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse (UUCP). Her musical and organizational efforts helped with the great success of the church’s choir for many years.
Some of Marty’s geologic research led to adventures, good and bad. When working on her doctoral field research in Oregon’s Klamath Mountains she had encounters with cougars, bears and crazy men with guns. Once, while walking beside a rain-swollen stream the bank gave way, dropping her into the stream, then over a waterfall. She was knocked unconscious and woke up in the dark of night to find that her half-wolf dog, Odin, had pulled her out of the water and was holding her from slipping back in. She had injured her back, so crawled a mile and a half to her car and drove about 50 miles to the nearest hospital. In 1984, after leading students to the top of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano, it erupted in the middle of the night with almost 1,000-foot-high fire fountains. Her group, who had camped nearby, was awakened by the pre-eruption earthquake, and spent the rest of the night taking photos. In the morning, by order of the park rangers who helicoptered in, they walked many miles to get off the volcano. By then, flowing lava was only a quarter-mile from where they had been camping.
During her final years at Mount Holyoke, and after she and Bill had retired, they traveled many times to Mexico, both as tourists and to conduct research with Mexican geologist friends. She also visited Great Britain, Germany, the Canary Islands, Jamaica, Canada, Nicaragua, South Africa, Alaska and Hawaii. During her travels she liked to visit volcanoes and even climbed some of them.
Marty passed away at her home in Moscow, after several years of enduring pain from spinal stenosis and a deranged shoulder, and from Alzheimer’s Disease. During that time she was cared for by her husband, Bill. She’ll always be remembered for her cheerful smile and friendliness, her loving and generous demeanor, her kindness and helpful attitude toward all she met, and her love of animals, especially horses and large dogs. She is survived by her husband, Bill Bonnichsen, an older sister, Penny Hanshaw and two nephews, Doug and Greg Hanshaw, all of southwestern Colorado, her son Luke Miller of Tumwater, Wash., her stepchildren: Susan (James) Kleeburg, of Lewiston, Jim Bonnichsen, of Moscow, Marilyn (Larry) Ross, of Deary and Dan (Gwen) Bonnichsen, of San Antonio; and by eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
A memorial and celebration of life service for Marty is planned, starting at 2 p.m., Saturday, May 18, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, 420 E. Second St., Moscow.
For those who wish to honor her with a gift, donations may be sent to some of her favorite organizations, including Idaho Public Television, the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, the Science on Ice organization, the Family Promise program or the Moscow Sister City Association.
