A presence on campus for more than 40 years and an avid Stanford sports fan, Ramona (Mona) C. Oliveira passed away Dec. 1 at the age of 77 after a prolonged battle with cancer. A memorial service will be held Friday at 3:30 p.m. at Memorial Church for Oliveira, the wife of Art Prof. Nathan Oliveira.

Those who knew her will remember her passion for life, sense of humor and fiery spirit. Born in Hayward, she grew up in San Leandro and graduated from Concordia High School in 1946. In 1948, she met Nathan Oliveira, whom she married in 1951.

Nathan Oliveira, professor emeritus of art, joined the studio art faculty at Stanford in 1964, and taught until his retirement in 1994.

Mona supported her husband’s work and art and also devoted herself to the couple’s three children, making the Stanford campus her home.

“She loved the University and displayed that care and concern whenever she could,” Nathan Oliveira said. He added that she was a member of the Stanford Faculty Women’s Club and embraced his former students when they visited.

“My students remember her just as much as they remember me, their teacher,” he said.

Since 1964, the couple had donated more than 100 pieces to the Cantor Center for Visual Arts.

Mona also left her mark is in the Stanford Athletics fan section. The daughter of a former Cincinnati Reds baseball player, Mona developed her enthusiasm for sports early on. In her time at Stanford, she was an energetic fixture at home games.

“They’ll miss her at the basketball games, because she was probably yelling at all the referees,” Nathan Oliveira said. “Stanford loyalists would look up and ask, ‘Who’s that lady yelling up there?’”

Mona’s exuberance for Stanford athletics was recounted by her son Joe.

“She kept scores at all the games, and we always had season tickets for football, baseball, and basketball,” he said. “It was really fun to go with her because she’d get really worked up. As a young kid growing up on the campus it was fun to have a mom like that.”

Mona’s passions also included wanderlust, and once their children were grown, the couple became avid globetrotters.

“Whenever I’d mention travel, she was ready to go,” Nathan Oliveira said.

One of Mona’s favorite places was Italy, where the couple traveled a number of times, once spending a quarter at the overseas campus in Florence.

Joe Oliveira remembers his mother as warm and loyal. “She was always on your side,” he said.

He reflected on one recent memory with his mother, when they went to a family friend’s party in San Francisco.

“My mom loved to dance — like big band dance, swing — and the dance floor was wide open. There was no one dancing, but there were a lot of people there. My mom asked if I would dance with her, and it was just the two of us on this huge dance floor in front of all these people,” Joe Oliveira said.

Nathan Oliveira described his wife as a witty, honest, and caring woman as well as a devoted friend.

“All the good things you can imagine about a woman — that was my wife,” he said.

The couple had been working towards establishing an on-campus meditative center, which would feature some of Nathan Oliveira’s paintings.

“She was very firmly behind that and felt there had to be a place for students and others on the campus to go and sit and collect themselves and fortify themselves internally,” he said.

Several alumni have already contributed to the project, which is waiting for a site on which to build.

“There’s great promise, and it will happen soon,” he said. “Mona was waiting for that to happen, and it would be nice to name it after her.”

Mona is survived by Nathan and her brother Neal Christensen of Hayward; three children, Lisa Lamoure of Fresno, Gina Oliveira of Kihea, Maui, and Joe Oliveira of Palo Alto; and five grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Pathways Hospice Foundation, 585 North Mary Ave., Sunnyvale CA 94085.