Sara Margery (Wilcox) Wuthnow passed away peacefully at home with her family on August 2, 2026. Born on March 9, 1946, in Kansas City, Kansas, she was the daughter of Dr. D. Ray Wilcox and Elizabeth [Edgar] Wilcox. Sara spent her childhood in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, and attended high school at the Hampden Dubose Academy in Orlando, Florida. She graduated from the University of Colorado in 1969 with a major in nursing, earned her master’s in nursing from the University of California San Francisco in 1972 and her doctorate in education from Rutgers University in 1983.

Sara worked as a clinical supervisor at Samuel Merritt Hospital in Oakland, taught nursing at The College of New Jersey and Holy Family University and chaired the Nursing Department at Eastern University. She and Robert Wuthnow were married in 1968. They moved to Princeton, New Jersey, in 1975 and lived there until 2018 when they moved to Northern Virginia. She was a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother; a spiritual seeker who had a sustaining faith in the unfathomable mystery of God; belonged to the Brambleton Presbyterian Church; and loved creative projects of all kinds, especially working on craft projects with her children, doing black and white photography, and writing poetry.

She is survived by her husband, Robert; daughter, Robyn Schaefer of Wilmette, Illinois; daughter, Brooke Byrnes of Aldie, Virginia; son, Joel Wuthnow of Aldie, Virginia; sons-in-law, Andy Schaefer and Mike Byrnes; daughter-in-law, Grace Wuthnow; grandchildren, Jake Schaefer, Henry Schaefer, Claire Schaefer, Kyle Byrnes, Alex Byrnes, Samuel Wuthnow and Thomas Wuthnow; and siblings, David Wilcox, Mary Smith, John Wilcox, and Ted Wilcox.