Mary Jeanette Durling Artist, teacher, civic activist and role model, Mary Jeanette Durling passed away peacefully while being held by family on February 4, 2016 at home in Montpelier, Vermont. Mary was hugged and embraced over recent days by family, friends and, as always, anyone who happened to walk by and wanted to talk. Bravely battling cancer for three months, Mary put the final brushstrokes on her life's canvas, dying as she lived--with laughter and with optimism for joining her Lord. Mary was 80 years young and was blessed over her final 17 years to share love, life and curiosity with her devoted and generous second husband, Douglas Harry Kirtz, a mechanical engineer who Mary met through mutual interests in the Democratic Party. A Renaissance woman, Mary retired as Assistant Dean of Students at her alma mater, Oberlin College, but throughout her life she also helped engineer parts for the Space Shuttle, marched for equality, marched for job creation, danced with a President, hand-delivered the Daily Worker newspaper, taught art to children and adults, did graphic design, built sculptures, painted, donated to and worked for foundations, stumped for her political candidates, served on boards, taught Sunday school, illustrated and wrote books, managed budgets, coordinated a presidential inauguration, crafted newsletters, silk-screened and tie-dyed, read widely on disparate subjects, and served on every vestry she could in support of her churches. Mary and Doug made a life together first in Oberlin, Ohio, then in Vermont in Greensboro, Barre and Montpelier. Their homes were filled with interesting people, elevated debate, Doug's inventive creations, and Mary's art, garbanzo soup and rhubarb pie. Their friends and family would visit often, some reminiscing over many shared decades of laughter, politics, news, travel, religion and art. Doug made sure Mary's dream came true, with the two of them purchasing and improving a camp in the Winnimere section of Caspian Lake, where they taught their grandchildren to swim, dive off the raft, enjoy homemade vichyssoise, catch crayfish, walk to Willey's, paddle, sail, watch sunsets and hug. Mary Durling was born in Amherst, Ohio on June 16, 1935 to William Jacob Durling and Flora Evelyn Hearn Durling, the youngest of doting older sisters Claire Jane Coleman and Susanne Hearn Durling. Their father died after having served for 27 years as Superintendent of Clearview-Vincent School District and their mother relocated to Oberlin, Ohio in 1954, where Mrs. Durling worked at Oberlin College. An outstanding student, Mary attended Amherst High School, in Ohio, and then Ohio State University, in Columbus, transferring after a year to Oberlin College. Mary's Oberlin education was made possible by uncles and aunts who recognized her academic potential. Mary made sure to reciprocate their kindness by working throughout her life to help underserved children gain literacy and access to first-rate education. Mary graduated from Oberlin with an A.B. in Art and Art Education, cementing a relationship with her alma mater that lasted her entire life. Education in and beyond the classroom was always paramount to Mary. While raising her children, Mary set an example of lifelong learning by earning her Master's Degree from Manhattanville College, in 1975, and pursuing graduate work in Engineering at Norwalk State Technical College, in Connecticut. An agile thinker with an extraordinarily broad base of knowledge, Mary earned Honors from Manhattanville College for her ground-breaking master's thesis entitled: "Visual Thinking and Its Role in the Creative Process," which made use of readings in the fields of art, education, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and religion. Marrying Korean War veteran James F. Fixx on June 13th, 1957, the day after they graduated from Oberlin College, Mary began their family in Sarasota, Florida and then Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, where they brought sons Paul and John into the world, then twins, Betsy and Stephen. Mary's time in Jackson Heights brought her life-long friends through St. Mark's Church and the Towers Garden Community. In 1966 Mary and Jim moved to Riverside, Connecticut, where Mary devoted herself to her family, her art, and to active volunteering with such organizations as the League of Women Voters, the Democratic Party, Riverside School, Eastern Middle School, St. Savior's Church and the Presbyterian Church of Old Greenwich, including teaching Sunday school and summer school. Mary was busy while supporting her children and supporting Jim in his nascent editing and writing career. Mary and Jim collaborated on Jim's first book, Games for the Superintelligent, with Mary providing the fine illustrations. At the time of her death Mary had just attracted a publisher for a children's book she began in the 1960s with Jim and completed earlier this year with her children. Divorced in 1973, Mary began working full-time for Hoffman Engineering, Old Greenwich, Connecticut, where, among other duties, she proudly helped design, create technical drawings and test instrument panel lighting connectors for NASA's first Space Shuttles. While earning her master's degree in the evenings, Mary juggled a full work week while making too many trips with her children to the emergency room and driving to Boy Scouts, dance lessons, soccer, basketball and baseball games, attending PTA meetings, and finding sea glass while walking with her children on the beach at Tod's Point. And then, after the house was quiet at night, Mary would stay up late painting and sculpting, responding to events in the world by creating her art and by crafting vestments and tapestries for her churches. Mary always kept up an amazing pace that was, paradoxically, full of tranquility and patience. Her children never remember her raising her voice. Her children's friends remember Mary during those days as "smart and lovely--an amazingly strong and inspiring woman. I think Mary was the first single mother I knew. I remember one time when she baked a pie for a bunch of us using huckleberries that grew in the yard. It was late in the evening when the pie was served at the kitchen table. I think it was my first-ever warm berry pie. I will never forget it." Mary in 1978 returned to family and friends in Oberlin and worked independently as a freelance artist for institutional and commercial clients, such as the Hayes Presidential Center and the Firelands Association for Visual Arts (F.A.V.A.), in Oberlin. She served as Executive Director and Gallery Chairman for F.A.V.A., and partook in several exhibitions as a juror and as a participating artist. Always civic-minded, Mary became involved with the Oberlin community as finance chair of Christ Episcopal Church, City Chair for the Pease for Congress Campaign, Oberlin College's Class of 1957 Class Agent, and as a contributing artist to the Stocker Center Gallery at Lorain County Community College. Mary's relationship with Oberlin College grew deeper over the subsequent decades, beginning with a teaching position through their Upward Bound Program during the summer of 1979. Mary then became Assistant to the Vice President for External Affairs, then Coordinator of the John Frederick Oberlin Society and Staff Coordinator for the Sesquicentennial Celebration Planning Committee, responsible for the planning and scheduling of concerts and symposia, and the graphics and printing for the year-long celebration. As part of the Sesquicentennial Celebration, Mary also served as coordinator for the Inauguration of Oberlin College's 12th President, S. Frederick Starr. In 1985 Mary worked alongside her daughter-in-law, Kimberlie Gumz Fixx, Curator of Collections, at Oberlin's Allen Memorial Art Museum. Mary received admiration from Oberlin when she served so successfully as the Project Director of the Oberlin College Bandstand Design Competition. On the heels of that success, Oberlin College named Mary Assistant to the Director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, putting her in charge of budget management, supervising student personnel, community relations, coordinating newsletters and special activities, and fiscal planning. Ever diversifying, Mary then joined the staff of Student Support Services, serving as Director of the McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program from 1989 to 1993, a program that proudly launched students of color onto Wall Street and into the business worlds in which minority students and first-generation college students had been vastly under-represented. Mary retired from Oberlin College in 1997 from her position as Assistant Dean of Students where, among many other duties, she was coordinator of the Judicial Board and Student Honor Committee. As in every place she has lived, Mary's commitment to education and civic affairs elevated those around her. Mary was the first female member and then first female President--of course--of Oberlin's previously all-male Rotary Club, breaking ground that has since led to four other women following her as President. The weekly Rotary meetings and Rotary International meetings were great sources of collegiality. Mary was recognized in Ohio for her efforts in city planning and historic preservation. In addition, Mary participated in the City Buildings Review Committee, the Oberlin Improvement Corporation, the Open Space Commission and the Strategic Planning Neighborhood Task Force. Politics and political mobilization were never far from Mary's heart. Beginning with Lyndon Johnson's campaign, Mary attended a number of Democratic Inaugurations and served numerous times as a Delegate to the Democratic Convention. Mary also served as Oberlin City Chair for the 13th Congressional District Delegate to Democratic National Convention (Michael Dukakis) and worked on campaigns for Congressmen Don Pease and Sherrod Brown. Mary's concern for politics and the welfare of the town of Oberlin led to her campaign for City Council in 1989, on which she served until 1993. Mary was preceded in death by her parents, Flora Evelyn Hearn Durling and William Jacob Durling, and by her first husband, James F. Fixx and his mother, Marlys Fuller Fixx. Mary is survived by her husband, Douglas Harry Kirtz (Montpelier); her sisters, Claire Jane Coleman (Billings, MT) and Susanne Durling (Green Valley, AZ); her cousins Thomas Hearn, (Eleva, WI), Olive Gerber (Amherst, Ohio) and David Hearn (Washington, D.C.); her children, Paul Calvin Fixx (Hardwick, VT), John Durling Fixx and his wife, Liza (Madison, CT), Elizabeth Gumina and her husband, Thomas (Berlin, MA) and Stephen Fuller Fixx and his wife, Kimberlie (Elyria, OH); her step-children, Aaron Kirtz and his wife Blue Chevigny and their daughter, Simone Kirtz (Maplewood, NJ), Eli Kirtz (Astoria, NY) and Laurel Kirtz (Oberlin, OH); her grandchildren, Nathaniel Durling Fixx, Emily Mae Fixx, James Nicholson Fixx, Michael Gumina, Garrett Fuller Fixx and Nicholas Gumina; her nieces and nephews, Joan McNiece and her husband Michael (Fountain, CO), Glenn Highland (Corona Del Mar, CA), Carol Highland-Fritz and her husband Larry Fritz (Billings, MT) and Bruce Highland (Maui, HI); her beloved grandnieces and grandnephews; and her brother-in-law, William D. Kirtz (Shutesbury, MA) and sister-in-law Barbara Haplea and her husband Jack (Huron, OH). Mary was devoted to her sisters, nieces, nephews, and grandnieces and nephews. Her nieces and nephews will always remember their aunt, as Glenn expressed it, as "a real people person, liking everyone of all different ages. She seemed to go with the flow and play with her youthful enthusiasm." Mary "always sent the most thoughtful, artistic gifts with lovely little notes. I have gifts she gave me as a child," her niece, Carol, wrote. "One particular artsy pin still has Mary's little handwritten note, which I occasionally read. Her blue eyes and smiles will never be forgotten." Glenn adds, "I remember Mary's energy. She was so classy, artistic and fun. I have always been in awe with what she could create with her own hands. She is very loved and will be missed in our hearts." Her nephews and nieces "admired her grace and sense of style and cosmopolitan nature." Nephew Bruce wrote, "I called Mary and told her I loved her and thanked her for being such a wonderful aunt for all of us Highlands for all of these years. I heard her laugh and when I told her one more time that we all loved her, she said, 'Thank you for telling me that again.' I could see the smile on her face when she said that. What a beautiful person and life!" Always thinking of children's education, before her death Mary asked that in lieu of flowers, people be encouraged to support the education fund her family established in honor of her parents to support students at Durling Middle School, which was named in honor of her father. Memorial contributions may be made in memory of Mary Durling to the William J. and Flora Hearn Durling Fund at the Community Foundation of Lorain County, 9080 Leavitt Road, Elyria, OH 44035. http://www.peoplewhocare.org/funds/community-funds/William-J-and-Flora-Hearn-Durling-Fund At the convenience of family and friends, there will be a Celebration of Life at Westview Meadows, at Christ Episcopal Church of Montpelier and Christ Episcopal Church of Oberlin. Those wishing to express condolences may send them to Betsy Gumina, 167 River Road West, Berlin, MA 01503 or online at http://www.guareandsons.com/home/.