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68 P E R S P E C T I V E | M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 6 milestones MARY WEAVER DODSON 1932 – 2016 by Hub Braden, Production Designer Mary Weaver Dodson, the second woman Production Designer in the Guild, and the first to be placed on the industry experience roster, died on Monday, February 15, from complications of Parkinson's disease. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in theater from Carnegie Tech University and married her high school sweetheart, and fellow Carnegie Tech graduate, actor Jack Dodson. The two moved to New York City where he pursued a Broadway acting career and she was hired at NBC in Rockefeller Center to assist Gary Smith designing Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall. She soon become a full broadcast television Scenic Designer and designed, among many other projects, Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. In 1965, Jack was offered the role of Howard Sprague on The Andy Griffith Show, so Mary quit her staff job and they moved with their little girls, Amy and Christine, to Northridge, California. NBC Burbank Art Department supervisor Milt Altman volunteered to find a slot for her there, and among her varied assignments was a long run on Days of Our Lives. When Jack's employment on The Andy Griffith Show, and its spinoff Mayberry R.F.D., was finished, the family returned to New York City where he continued acting on Broadway with his friend Jason Robards. In 1973, they returned to Southern California for good, bought a home in Van Nuys, and both continued their long and successful careers. Mary resumed Art Direction assignments at NBC Burbank, working jointly for the NBC Art Department and secondarily for the NBC Telesales Division, on productions and commercials produced at the Burbank facility. Like many broadcast designers, Mary placed herself on the film division's industry experience roster in May 1976 when the producers briefly opened the roster to television members. MCA Universal Studios was producing more than twenty continuing series that season, and Art Department heads Bill DeCinces and Ray Brandt hired as many NBC, ABC and CBS Art Directors, Assistant Art Directors, set decorators and drafting personnel as they could find. Mary made the move to filmed television and was soon designing Battlestar Gallactica and Delta House on the studio's North Hollywood lot. Mary's 45-year career included a wide range of projects, including The Jack Benny Hour, Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters, Taxi, Falcon Crest, Full House, Columbo and Murder, She Wrote. Working with Hub Braden, she was nominated four times for Emmy Awards ® and once for the ADG Award. Mary was preceded in death by her husband, Jack Dodson, and she is survived by their two daughters, Amy Dodson and Cristina Dodson, one granddaughter, Samantha Keil, and two brothers, Daniel Weaver, and actor Fritz Weaver. Above: Actor Jack Dodson and Mary Weaver Dodson.