Isolde A. Davidson had planned to retire from the ISBA staff on Aug. 30, the 25th anniversary of her employment, but a sudden professional opportunity has lured her back to her home state of Arizona a bit earlier.

The bar association's director of marketing and membership left April 13 to fill the same position with the Maricopa County Bar Association in Phoenix on April 23.

Her husband, Ron Davidson, will leave his job with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services on April 16 to become assistant director of Clark County Family Services in Las Vegas, Nev., on May 1.

Isolde Davidson joined the ISBA staff in 1982 as director of publications, succeeding Virgil Tipton. Her area of responsibility expanded in 2001 to a new office as director of marketing, to which membership development was added two years ago.

Both Davidsons were raised in Phoenix and graduated from Arizona State Uni-versity. They moved in 1972 to Chicago, where Ron attended the University of Chicago's graduate School of Social Service Administration.

Isolde was an editorial assistant and women's editor at Prairie Farmer magazine, positions she had held previously with Arizona Farmer-Ranchman in Phoenix. She also had a brief stint as a technical editor for Sperry Flight Systems.

They moved in 1974 to Springfield, where Ron began his state job and Isolde became public information assistant at Lincoln Land Community College. She was publications editor and also received her master's degree at Sangamon State University (now the University of Illinois-Springfield) before her move to the ISBA.

“After 35 years, this is really a homecoming long planned for,” she said. Among members of the Davidsons' extended families in Arizona is their daughter, Alexandra. The couple will live in Scottsdale.