Born in Portland, Ore., Robert had been a National Merit Scholar, a member of Mensa, and according to his daughter “a math genius.” He’d been working on his Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Portland before quitting when Elizabeth got pregnant with their first child. He retired at the age of 53 in 1995 from his job as a civilian operations analyst for the Naval Undersea Warfare Engineering Station (NUWES), now the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), in Keyport, Wash.

But despite Robert’s accomplishments—NUWES/NUWC is the center of all research and development for the U.S. Navy’s underwater warfare capabilities—it was Elizabeth who had the public profile.

Born in Guangzhou, China, Elizabeth moved to Fiji as a child with her aunt, where she lived until moving to Portland as a teenager. She graduated from Cleveland High School there in 1967, and was attending college before getting married in 1970.

When she died, she’d been working full time at Kona Kitchen, a mini-chain of two Hawaiian restaurants she founded with Angela and her son-in-law, Yuji Okumoto (an actor, best known as the 80s villain from “Karate Kid II,” whose grandfather was born on Kauai). The outpouring of grief when their deaths were announced was immediate, and for Angela, unexpected.

“We were getting things sent to us from complete strangers,” Angela said. “The first, huge bouquet of flowers came from someone my mom waited on once.”

Though she had been co-owner of a restaurant called the Golden Star in Bremerton, Wash., since 1988, it was Kona that made its mark on the Seattle area. Founded in 2002, Kona had become a staple in northeast Seattle’s Maple Leaf neighborhood, and in 2019, they’d opened a second location north of Seattle, which they’d just decided to temporarily close because of the coronavirus when her mother got sick.

“We were always trying to get to the point where it would run itself and take a step back and maybe have a semi-normal life, to take a trip or do normal-people things,” Angela said, speaking of her and her husband, “but she was always so concerned about being there and watching it and being there for the customers. She never really took that step back, and I think that’s why it had that sense of home, because we were all there.”

Her father would eat there frequently, according to Angela, acting like a secret shopper, she said, “letting us know what he thought we could improve or do differently.”

When she wasn’t at the restaurant, Elizabeth had been recently doing shifts as a grandmother, taking care of one or another of her seven grandchildren. The Okumotos’ child was five months old when the first Kona opened, and when Angela was stuck working the bar on Friday and Saturday nights, Elizabeth would be nannying.

But on most days, it was Elizabeth working the late shift.

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“At Kona, we were hardly ever together: If she’s there, I’m not and if I’m there, she’s not. But I always looked forward to her coming through the door, because I might be able to con her into making us lunch, and we’d sit there and eat together before I took off. That’s when we got to share and talk and hang out.”

Elizabeth’s off-menu lunches would rotate depending on what they had in the back; the last lunch was grilled pork chops with sauteed onions and mushrooms.

In addition to the Okumotos and their grandchildren, the Mars are survived by their two sons, Robert and Richard.