Marcia Anne Andres

Middlesex, VT

Marcia Anne Andres passed away peacefully on January 5th 2026 in the comfort of the home she shared with her beloved children and grandchildren. Marcie was born on May 23, 1946 in Saint Paul, Minnesota the daughter of Sibel (Penny) and Robert Andres. She grew up in Walla Walla, Washington and spent her childhood downhill skiing and dancing ballet with her beloved Russian dance teacher Ivan Novakoff.

When she was thirteen, she rented a studio at the local YMCA and taught ballet after school. She started with five or six students and by the time she went off to college she had 100 pupils. She charged $1.00 a class and made so much money that she bought her parents a new refrigerator; and to her father's chagrin, bumped them up to a higher tax bracket. In her last two summers of high school she also worked as a manager and short order cook at a drive-in burger joint called Reed and Bells. Somehow she found time to study, continue her own dance practice, captain the cheerleading squad, and be elected homecoming queen.

Marcie attended the University of Montana and graduated in 1968. After college Marcie hitchhiked around Europe, lugging her ski boots on her back before landing a job as a chamber maid at a ski chalet in the Swiss alps for the winter.

When she came back to the US she joined the teacher corps, serving in Seattle, Washington where she taught eighth grade while earning two masters degrees in education. In 1970, she met an east coast transplant named Larry Mandell. After a memorable year together in Seattle and on Vashon island in the Puget Sound, Marcie and Larry headed back east so that Larry could attend law school in Boston. Marcie got a job teaching reading at Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) in South Boston. Their years in Boston were good ones for Marcie. She loved the city and the tight circle of friends they developed.

Marcie and Larry moved to Vermont in 1974 and got married at the Greenhurst Inn in Bethel, Vermont.

Marcie taught sixth grade at Williamstown Elementary School before becoming a beloved teacher at Rumney Elementary School in Middlesex for twenty-five years.

She was a curious, creative and student-centered educator, always seeking out new ways to engage her "kids" and make learning accessible and relevant to them. She particularly loved -- and excelled at -- figuring out ways to reach students who felt that school "was not for them." Together with Joseph Kiefer and Martin Kemple she created the community garden program at Rumney in the late 1980's to bring integrated hands-on science and outdoor education to Rumney students. Later, she built a working model of a living machine in her sixth grade classroom. Tilapia swam around eating lettuce grown hydroponically at the top of their aquarium while their waste fertilized the lettuce.

After retiring from Rumney, Marcie became co-director of Central Vermont Adult Education where she tutored English language learners and developed personalized strategies to help adults learn to read even after decades of frustration. As she had with generations of Rumney students, Marcie gave her students her all, dedicating hours to finding them housing and other supports.

In 1976 Marcie and Larry bought an old farmhouse in Middlesex. Marcie oversaw a major renovation of the house in the early 1990s, using her eye for design to transform it into a welcoming family home while honoring its history. In 2016, tired of shoveling and mowing the lawn, Marcie and Larry moved into Montpelier where Marcie, a voracious reader, enjoyed walking to the library to check out armloads of books.

Marcie loved being a "Bubbie" -- the Yiddish word for grandmother -- to Loren and Calla, and they delighted in being her grandchildren. During the pandemic, Marcie was a lifeline for Bekah and her family. With daycares and preschools closed, she enrolled Loren and Calla in "Bubbie School." Everyday she would arrive at the house on Macey Road with a new lesson plan tied to a letter of the alphabet. The lessons drew on her decades of experience as an educator and always included lots of messy hands on fun.

When the pandemic ended, Marcie continued to be a huge part of Loren and Calla's lives, picking them up from school and bringing them to their afterschool activities and playing hours of games with them.

Marcie is survived by her two children Bekah and Jeff, Bekah's two children Loren and Calla, her sister Cathy and her husband Jim, her brothers- and sisters-in-law Richard and Marilyn Mandell and Seth and Sherri Mandell as well as her nieces and nephews, Susan, Carol, Avi, Julia, Daniel, Eliana and Gavi, their partners, and their kids.

Marcie will be missed by her beloved family as well as wonderful lifelong friends Judy and Micheal Rosow, Bob (and Robin) Elson, Phoebe Morse, Alan and Gale Rome, Bill and Susan Harrit and generations of Vermont kids who, through her creativity, discovered that they too loved -- and deserved to love -- learning.

A funeral service will be held Friday, January 9th at 1:30pm at Guare & Sons in Montpelier. In lieu of flowers people who love and appreciate Marcie can make contributions to Central Vermont Adult Education, the Rumney PTNO, Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice, Public Assets Institute, or Circus Smirkus.