Marilyn Anne Biggerstaff

Dr. Marilyn A. Biggerstaff died on February 4, 2026, after a long battle with cancer. An only child, Marilyn was born in Coffeyville, Kansas in 1946 to Ellis B. Biggerstaff and Mary Anne (Boren) Biggerstaff and grew up in Shawnee, Kansas. She is survived by beloved cousins and numerous friends. Marilyn received a bachelor’s degree from Baker University where she was a member of the Tri-Delta sorority. In 1969 she received her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Kansas.

Her career began in public child welfare in Denver, Colorado, followed by several years in community mental health services as a clinician, and director in the Denver General Hospital follow-up studies of clients receiving community mental health services. This experience in research led her to earn a doctoral degree at the School of Social Work, University of Southern California in Los Angeles in 1976.

Dr. Biggerstaff relocated to Richmond, Virginia as Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University. She taught in the MSW and PhD social work programs from 1978 until retiring in 2005 as a tenured Professor. She was a member of Phi Kappa Phi. During her time at VCU, Dr. Biggerstaff served at the national level as chair of the social work examination committee, traveled to Belize and the Dominican Republic on service projects, and under sponsorship of ChildFund taught social work and psychology professionals in Belarus and Ukraine.

Following retirement from VCU she was Executive Director of HomeAgain which provides emergency and transitional housing for the homeless in Richmond. A long-time volunteer in disaster mental health services for the Red Cross, she also served as Director of Client Services for the American Red Cross in Washington, DC. After her third retirement, Marilyn continued volunteer work in human services agencies in the Richmond area.

Marilyn’s interests included traveling, cheering for VCU basketball, acrylic painting, and working on fused glass art and other activities at Cedarfield where she had lived since June 2024. Her friends and family would like to thank Cedarfield, At Home Care Hospice, and BrightStar Care for the compassionate care they provided during the final days of Marilyn’s life.

Those wishing to remember Marilyn may designate contributions to the Dr. Marilyn A Biggerstaff Fund for Doctoral Student Research at the VCU School of Social Work (sent to the VCU Foundation Gifts and Records Office at Box 843042, Richmond, VA 23228, or online at https://give.vcu.edu/campaigns/61996/donations/new).

A celebration of Marilyn’s life will be held in the Robins Room at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond on Friday, March 27 at 4:00pm with a reception to follow.