Mary A. Wood, 88, died on September 21, 2014. A resident of Kendal at Longwood, Mary was a life-long and active Quaker and a lover of silence and solitude. Her capacity for deep listening and her keen intellect made her a friend to many. She was born Mary Alice Marshall in Whittier, CA in 1926, to Elma and Harold Marshall, members of Friends Church in Whittier. Acres of lemon and orange trees surrounded her childhood home. In 1942 she boarded the train and traveled cross country to Westtown School, from which she graduated in 1944. She attended Whittier and William Penn Colleges, graduating Cum Laude from Whittier in 1949.
The day after her 19th birthday, she married Robert Azeltine, whom she met while he was in southern California at a forest service camp where he was a conscientious objector. Mary and Robert raised two children, Nancy and Michael, before Robert’s death in 1962. Mary returned to the east coast, studying for a year at Pendle Hill before settling with her second husband, Howard Reed in Storrs, Connecticut. When her second marriage ended, she became Head Resident at Pendle Hill from 1984 to 1988. She held many other jobs in her life, including Director of Religious Education at Friends Church, and teacher of atypical pre-school children in Storrs. In her retirement she served as Clerk of the Pendle Hill Executive Board, and volunteered with hospice
Throughout her life she was a voice for equality and a student of, among other things, religion, physics, and neuroscience–a life-long learner. She loved to write, never left home without a good book, and took time to wonder at the beauty that surrounded her. She is survived by her children, Nancy Worobey and Michael Azeltine, her grandchildren Robert and Lynn Worobey, her brother Alan Marshall, and many others who were honored to count her as a friend.
