Born 12/8/1949
Middlebury, Vermont
Died 1/18/2023
Starksboro, Vermont
Particulars of providers
A service celebrating Marcia’s life will probably be held later within the spring or summer time at a location to be introduced. If desired, to honor Marcia’s life, donations could also be made to Addison County Residence Well being and Hospice or Starksboro First Response.
Marcia Jean Perry died Wednesday, January 18, 2023, on the age of 73, surrounded by family members at her residence in Starksboro, Vermont, after a six-month battle with pancreatic most cancers.
Marcia was born on December 8, 1949, in Middlebury, Vermont, to Margery Louise (Bent) Masterson and Edward Charles Masterson. The center baby of 5 sisters, she spent her adolescence in Bristol and South Bristol, the place she discovered to embrace nation life and the pure world on her household’s three acre homestead. Right here her dad and mom stored gardens and chickens, a milk cow named Daisy Mae and a sheep named Marysheep, and the ladies’ play was targeted on what was out there to them open air at residence, and on ventures to native woods and rivers.
When the household moved to Brandon, Marcia started enjoying the clarinet in Band and have become concerned with an lively youth fellowship on the Methodist Church. She was additionally a hardworking and spirited worker on the Rexall Drugstore and Shapiro’s Division Retailer. She graduated from Otter Valley Union Excessive College in 1967, attended Castleton State Faculty and lived briefly in Florida and Rhode Island earlier than returning to Vermont in 1970, residing in Rutland and Shrewsbury. She was married for a short while to Robert Norton of Florida, with whom she had her son, Chad, in 1970. She labored for a number of years on the First Vermont Financial institution & Belief Firm in Rutland, and in 1972, she met Peter Osterhoudt of Glens Falls, N.Y., and he quickly joined her and Chad’s household. The three moved to Vershire, Vermont, in 1973 when she and Peter started working on the Vershire College, a personal boarding faculty.
The Vershire College was based on the idea that younger youngsters endeavor a university prep curriculum might additionally profit from a robust, hands-on, experiential element. College got quite a lot of freedom to develop packages and studying alternatives for college kids. Marcia thrived on this surroundings, working, with Peter, for a number of years, a Pioneer and Wilderness Summer season Camp. Their program supplied a camp-based deal with homesteading, gardening, and constructing primitive dwelling amenities; and a wilderness deal with backpacking, canoeing, and climbing, each in distant areas within the northeast, and within the Canadian and Colorado Rockies. Throughout the faculty 12 months, Marcia helped lead months-long, culturally immersive residences in Mexico, and shorter excursions to Greece and to the Grand Canyon. At her residence on the faculty, Marcia engaged in her personal homesteading actions – gardening, retaining a milk cow, and elevating huskies.
Throughout this time, Marcia accomplished her bachelor’s diploma in biology and secondary schooling at Norwich College, after which started her instructing profession in Biology, Spanish, English, and Music at Vershire. She ultimately served the varsity as Director of the Tutorial Summer season College, Director of Research, and Director of Judgment Ridge [Summer] Camp. On this interval of her life, Marcia expanded her sense of journey and alternative, and gained self-confidence and a robust sense of her personal private integrity and management capacities. She honed her pedagogical expertise and uncovered her innate compassion and expertise for nurturing college students with studying variations and private challenges.
Whereas at Vershire, Marcia met Tom Perry of Dover, Massachusetts, an English trainer who grew to become her finest buddy, journey companion, and loving husband in a wedding that spanned virtually 40 years. There, Marcia additionally met her two expensive lifelong buddies, Sheri Amsel and Sara Lyda.
In 1984, Marcia taught on the Dwight-Englewood College in Englewood, N.J., then returned to Vermont to settle with Chad, and Tom, in Burlington. There, Marcia labored as a Chapter One tutor with youngsters at St. Joseph’s Group Residence, and, in 1987, she and Tom welcomed a daughter, Caitlin, into their lives. Additionally at the moment, Marcia and Tom started their life in Starksboro, first at a tiny off-grid stone cabin half a mile up a 4 wheel drive highway above the Huntington Valley, the place they spent most of their free time. Later they bought {a partially} transformed dairy barn in the identical a part of Starksboro, which they spent the subsequent 25 years reworking into their residence. Marcia stored goats, chickens, and geese, and expanded her gardening and beekeeping hobbies. She embraced the nuances of nation life and the ecosystems round her, and he or she had vigorous interactions together with her flocks and herds within the barn every morning! She additionally beloved birdwatching, studying, knitting and fiber arts, sitting on her porch, and connecting with family members on a protracted stroll or round a dinner desk.
Marcia’s instructing profession continued to broaden over the course of her working life. She loved prolonged tenures on the Pine Ridge College in Williston, the Lake Champlain Waldorf College in Shelburne, Rice Excessive College in South Burlington, and on the Stern Heart for Language and Studying in Williston. She additionally taught at U32 Excessive College in East Montpelier, at Vergennes Union Excessive College, and at Burlington’s Mansfield Corridor. Throughout the spring earlier than she died, Marcia briefly grew to become a substitute trainer in her native faculty district till her sickness made that inconceivable. She additionally served her local people as Starksboro’s Inexperienced Up Day Coordinator for ten years, as a Meals on Wheels driver, and on the Starksboro Neighborhood Meals Shelf.
Marcia beloved to chortle, particularly on the ironies in life, and believed one might as nicely be lifeless with out a humorousness. She was a bit irreverent and a bit rebellious, however she might additionally pay attention – rather well, actually. She was a supportive, perceptive mentor whom many relied on as a confidant and advisor. She raised her two youngsters with openness, belief and respect, and made her residence inviting and cozy – an area crammed with beloved canines and cats, houseplants, images of her favourite individuals, and recent flowers. Marcia’s supportive presence was the muse for her shut relationships with all, together with each one in every of her nieces and nephews, making her a particular and beloved aunt.
Marcia’s different actual ardour was to journey, and discover new locations. She introduced her youngsters, husband, and college students on frequent highway journeys all through america, Canada, and Mexico. She loved further travels to Alaska, Europe, Japan, and the Caribbean. She firmly believed within the energy of “a change of surroundings” to uplift one’s temper and alter one’s perspective!
Marcia is survived by her husband, Tom Perry; her son, Chad Osterhoudt of Duxbury (Jodi Shippee); her daughter, Caitlin Perry of Pittsfield, Massachusetts (Victoria Arnoldi); her sisters, Margo Masterson of Brandon, Margaret Fish of Maidstone (Robert Fish), Jennie Masterson of Brandon (Len Schmidt), and Josie Masterson-Glen of New Haven (William Glen); in addition to quite a few nieces, nephews, grand nieces and nephews, cousins, and buddies.
