Marilyn Martin Forbes

Marilyn was born on July 31, 1938, in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, the first of four girls of Walter and Rachel (Wengert) Martin. She was baptized in the Brethren in Christ church in Elizabethtown. She attended Messiah Academy in Grantham, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1956, and then continued at Messiah College until 1958. She graduated from Greenville College, Greenville, Illinois, in 1960. For the next two years she was a volunteer with the Mennonite Central Committee managing a sewing center in a refugee camp in Jericho, Jordan. Returning home she taught in the Elizabethtown Public Schools for three years, completing the requirements for permanent teacher certification in Pennsylvania.

From 1965 until 1970 she taught second grade at the American Community School in Beirut, Lebanon. In Beirut she met Charles Forbes, a graduate student at the American University of Beirut. They were married in Elizabethtown in August of 1966.

In 1970 Marilyn and Charles returned home, living in Elizabethtown, where their first son, Craig, was born; Ann Arbor, Michigan, where their second son, Jay, was born; Minneapolis; Washington, D.C.; finally settling in Timonium, Maryland, where Charles was an Education Specialist for the Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

For the next fifty years she was mother to her two sons, loving wife of Charles, substitute teacher in the Baltimore City and County schools, and an active participant in the community and Govans Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, where she was ordained as an Elder and Deacon. She served as Sunday School Superintendent and as an assistant and substitute teacher in the Govans Presbyterian PreSchool. For fifteen years she was part of the church program staff as Membership and Outreach Coordinator, retiring in 2007.

In retirement she continued assisting in the church PreSchool, and in many volunteer positions at the church. Throughout her married life she spent summers at the Forbes family cabin in Star Lake, Wisconsin, a gathering place for the family each summer.

Marilyn loved to travel: her honeymoon took her to Iceland, Greenland, and Europe. Along with Charles she made the “round the world” trip in1971, and since has visited every continent except Antarctica and almost every US state.

Marilyn’s sisters are Linda Bauman (David), Carol Thomas (Dwight), and the late Jane Walters (LeRoy). She is survived by her two sons, Craig and his wife Gretchen (Stukey), of Madison, Wisconsin, and Jay and his wife Sarah (Eastman), of Finksburg, Maryland; and four grandchildren Cory and Ryan of Madison, and Jeremy and Rachel of Finksburg.

A Memorial Service will be arranged at Govans Presbyterian Church when it becomes safe for family and friends to gather. Marilyn will be buried in the community cemetery in Star Lake, Wisconsin. Memorial donations may be made to Woodberry Crossing (woodberrycrossing.org) where she volunteered and served on the Board.

Marilyn will be remembered by her family and friends as a thoughtful, loving, giving wife, mother, grandmother and sister. She passed peacefully, as she prayed she would, and rests peacefully with the God she always loved and depended on.