Marilyn Jean Hall Morgan

Survived by her devoted husband of 57 years George Remsen Morgan, cherished son Scott Remsen Morgan and grandsons Matthew Remsen Morgan and Benjamin Baker Morgan, and daughter-in-law Vicky Ellis Morgan. Marilyn graduated cum laude from Beaver Country Day School in Brookline MA in 1963 and attended Rollins College in Winter Park Florida before graduating from Boston University in 1967 earning a BA in Music. Marilyn pursued a singular and innovative career as a nursing home administrator and activities director using her considerable talents in music, art, theater, and dance developing and implementing programs for seniors that enabled seniors to continue to make a difference in the lives of others. She had a lifetime appreciation for the welfare of both pets and wildlife.

Funeral arrangements will be provided by Druckett - J.S. Waterman Funeral Home 656 Boston Post Rd., Sudbury MA 01776 with viewing hours on Friday, March 15, 2024 from 4PM to 7PM. Internment will be in the Highland Cemetery in Dover MA at 11 AM Saturday March 16, 2024. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the ASPCA and the World Wildlife Fund.

https://www.youtube.com/@GeorgeMorgan-yh9pk

Eulogy read on March 16th, 2024 at Marilyn's graveside

I first met Marilyn in early February 1964 when I was a junior at Rollins College and she was a freshman. I was the college sailing instructor and on the weekends ran the boathouse on the lake where Rollins is located in Winter Park, Florida. She had, she said, some sailing experience from sailing with her father on his 27 foot sailboat to and from Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. I sent her off on to the lake on one of the Sunfish sailboats we used in class. From the main dock I had about a 95% view of the lake itself, but on checking 10 minutes later, I did not see Marilyn or the sailboat on the water. There was one obstructed view by the boathouse garage where we docked the motorboats and so I quickly went there. Marilyn had the Sunfish bow against the shore with the sail fluttering. I hopped off the deck into the waist-deep February water and turned the boat back out onto the lake and climbed aboard.

We sailed together for about half an hour when I asked her if she would like to go to the Valentine dance two weeks hence, and she said yes. The rest is history. Neither of us could imagine then that we would be together for the next 60 years in which we checked all the boxes, “To have and to hold, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part”,

We were in love; her love I discovered early on had a special character into which I rapidly grew. Special because, as we courted and then married, it was a love, and an ongoing appreciation for what made us the individuals we were, that could not be compromised by our differences. I had not had that experience in my own family life up to that time, but she grew up with it, having a close relationship with both her parents and her grandparents, who she will be joining here. Her parents did not part until her father passed away just over 50-years together and her grandparents parted only when her grandmother passed away some 65 years after they first met.

Their life lesson in this respect became our own life lesson together. Growing up with her grandparents living just next door she developed quite early in life an enduring love and respect for older people that when pursuing a career brought her to the Senior Care profession as a nursing home administrator and activities director. She saw, early in her career, that for all the amenities and apparent security senior care facilities offered, there was yet one area she knew was often vital to seniors left unmet. That area was the opportunity for those in Senior Care to continue to make a positive and constructive difference in the lives of others. That this was so came from the goal of senior care facility owners to turn a profit from their residents, where residents become a means to an end, not ends in themselves.

This distinction, Marilyn saw, was often seen in the manner in which facilities sought to motivate their staffing to basically do more with less to increase profit for the owners. There were many Marilyn stories that illustrated how she met this challenge, but one that I particularly remember occurred during the holiday season at the end of the year. She was directed to create three teams to venture out one evening in the Boston Back Bay on a scavenger hunt. The members of the winning team would each receive $100. Marilyn fashioned two teams of staff of about equal number and rank. Team three consisted only of Marilyn. At the appointed hour the teams dispersed into the night and Marilyn finished an hour ahead of the rest. Marilyn collected her $100 to the astonishment and possibly annoyance of the owners.

The two losing teams were, at least, also astonished. As Marilyn explained to her staff, there is a difference in winning for the company and winning for the residents. The staff was well aware of, and generally supportive of, the unique and innovative programming that Marilyn created and implemented that gave residents a reason to rejoin life and make a difference for others. In doing so, residents found themselves once again making a difference in their own lives.

Directing her staff to focus on residents as ends in themselves, created a winning environment not only for the residents but also a win for the staff helping to provide that environment. “When you go home at night,” Marilyn asked, “do you feel just tired earning a pay check from the company, or do you come home with a sense of satisfaction that you helped make life better for the residents?” I win by giving the residents the win and that’s really how you actually earn your paycheck”

Teamwork Marilyn’s way was always tougher than the owner’s way, but Marilyn never wavered in her special focus. This lesson I learned from assisting Marilyn both officially and unofficially throughout her career in Senior Care. We both worked to make a positive and constructive difference in our own marriage for as long as we were together. At our parting, the lesson still stands for me as key against aging too quickly.

Marilyn, from the time she was very young, loved animals. Her fur brother was the family dog, a Spitz Poodle named “Rocky”. In the mid-50s or so the family was joined by two cats, a male, “Heyboy” and a female “Niffy”. All had quite distinct personalities. Although the cats lived with her parents in Dover not far from the apartment in Newton that was our first home together in 1966, Marilyn still missed them. We had generally agreed between us that sharing our quarters with a pet, or pets, might not be practical in the space available. Marilyn was commuting to Boston University in the fall of 1966 to complete her senior year in college. I was commuting also, taking graduate courses at Tufts University in 1966.

I arrived back at the apartment one day in early January 1967 to find Marilyn sitting at the top of the stairs in front of our apartment door. Alongside her sat a male orange tabby cat. “He followed me all the way back from the T stop” she said. “What could I do?” More to the point, ‘what could we do? “Give him a place for the night and we’ll see if he can find his way back from wherever he came from tomorrow” I answered. As it happened, “Charlie” remained with us, some 19 years, until his passing in the spring of 1985. Charle was a character in his own right and that day marked the beginning of the love I came to share with Marilyn for pets and wildlife. We moved to Dover two years later and six months into our new life there we were adopted by a second cat, a young and very matted Persian longhair who had chewed her way through the string around her neck that had been keeping her somewhere else. A few months of dedicated hair grooming restored her to her original beautiful self and “Samantha” became Charlie’s lifelong companion.

Sometime after our 20th anniversary Marilyn began lobbying me to get a St. Bernard dog. I resisted for a while but for our 25th in August 1991 I said “ok, lets celebrate with a St. Bernard”. Shortly afterward Marilyn returned with a 13-pound cuddly furball, “Snowbear” who by the end of the year had grown to 99 lbs and only levelled off at about 150 lbs the following year. I was indeed to fall for dogs as I had for cats. We are now on dog #5 (“Rocky 2” ) and cats #8 & 9 (“Sunshine” & “Twilight”)

All have enriched our lives and imparted to me, in particular, a much keener appreciation for both pets and wildlife than I would have had were it not for Marilyn.

A love that could not be compromised by our differences; the satisfying experience of being able to each make a positive and constructive difference in our own lives as well as in the lives of others; and for the many opportunities we have had to share our lives in such meaningful ways with our fur family; These are the gifts Marilyn has given me and that give me the courage to go forward. She will no longer be here for me to have and to hold, but she will be here with me in spirit.

Thank you, my love, for all these good years, I will love you forever.

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Eulogy by Scott:

We are here today to remember the life and legacy of Marilyn Hall Morgan, formerly Marilyn Jean Hall, a woman who it is my great privilege to call Mother, friend, confidante, inspiration and so much more.

But those are just words. Allow me to share some of the memories behind them.

From her earliest years, my mother was best defined by her love, caring and creativity. As a girl, she lived with her parents and her pets; an only-child only technically, she adored her dog Rocky I and cats Niffy and Hayboy, who doubled as siblings and who helped spark a caring nature in my mom that blossomed throughout her life.

Her father Benjamin was a free-spirited, self-made man, and her mother Augusta was a kind and determined woman, and it therefore is perhaps no surprise that she grew up to become a dreamer and a perfectionist—a daunting combination for most, but she carried it off with style.

Talented at art, singing, piano, ballet and modern dance, she received special recognition of her musical abilities from her private school Beaver Country Day School, where she became the piano accompanist on their productions throughout her teen years, while simultaneously pursuing archery, riflery and horseback riding on the side.

She continued to follow her passion at Rollins College, where she majored in art and music, and met my father George Morgan as a freshman in 1964. Happily for me, my dad had the wisdom to know a good thing when he saw it and the courage to ask her out, and they were married two years later while she was a junior at Boston University.

I came along five years later in 1971, another only-child who was raised with cats—no dogs at the time, although Mom made up for that in later years.

My very earliest memories of her are of her playing piano, painting at an easel, and singing. By the time I was 8, she had performed in the Gilbert and Sullivan play Ruddigore as Mad Margaret, created hand-painted dresses, and started what many believe to be one of her true callings as a nursing home recreation director, where she combined her talents at choreography, composition, artwork, piano and singing to help the residents discover, or in some cases rediscover, their dramatic flair and rekindle their delight in life.

I remember watching her put the shows together, and once in a while playing a part to help her try out different lines for the scripts. She always shone so brightly with her passion for creativity at those times, and it was all driven by a deep love and care for others that knew no bounds, whether it was for the people and pets at home, friends, residents or sometimes strangers she thought needed a helping hand.

I have so many happy memories of her. I loved her spaghetti and pop-overs, family getaways at the Cape house, walks on the Audubon trail, attending congregational services with her, taking square dancing lessons with her, attending my high school and college graduations, dancing with her at my wedding, holding my boys as infants. She was so proud to be a grandma, and she loved my wife as a daughter.

In her retirement, my mother cared for my grandmother, in her final years at the house in Sherborn, and shortly after her passing moved into the same suite when her illness started, when it became time for someone else to care for her, and my father took over. He doted on her, and did everything he could to make her comfortable.

Although her body grew frail, her mind always burned brightly—as did her love for us all, and she took great pleasure in watching the boys grow into young men. I think it was only after she’d seen them admitted to college and beginning the journey into adulthood that she was willing to finally rest.

Rest well Mom, and God keep you always. You are deeply loved.

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Eulogy by Katherine Corbin:

While preparing this Eulogy for Marilyn, my mind kept returning to the year 2011. This was the year that our sister, Diana, had to, quite suddenly, transition from her home in California to be closer to us in TN. She had an injury that required rehab as well as an extended time in an Assisting Living facility. In getting all of the details finalized for her, I was introduced to a little bit of what Marilyn knew and did so well. One thing that impressed me, was the availability of the programs that promoted and encouraged purpose, hope and the desire to keep engaging in life; an affirmation to them that they could still make a difference.

This was one of the things that Marilyn was exceptionally gifted at doing; giving those in the last years of their lives quality care, dignity and purpose. Serving in her roles as The Director and Activities Director in several different facilities, she created and implemented so many innovative programs for her residents. Programs, I believe, whose influence and reach, went far beyond the facilities where she worked. In so many ways, she was a pioneer in her time for resident/patient advocacy, Staff education and promoting positive systemic change. The benefits of which were experienced by our sister, so many years later. We may never know the full impact our lives and work have on the world or on others, but I think part of the wisdom Marilyn left us with, is to continue doing all you can in your sphere of influence to make the world a better place.

Marilyn was always making a positive difference. Not only in her work but also in her creativity and giftedness with art, music and especially the love that she gave her family.

Another great love of Marilyn’s is one that we both have in common; the love for all animals, big and small. (The lack of available space and what the law allows here, restrain but do not curb my enthusiasm for becoming a female version of “Old McDonald and his farm! :) Should that ever come to pass, I know it would bring a smile to Marilyn’s face!)

She and George not only gave quality lives and love to their own precious dogs and cats but Marilyn also advocated for so many others around the country that needed care and forever homes.

I know she is still making a difference because all that she has done, continues to live on in the lives of all that she touched.

As a minister in TN, I have the honor of walking with people through some of the hardest times in their lives and training new Ministers to do the same. So often, those “hardest times” involve the loss of someone nearest and dearest to them. We experienced this ourselves with the suden death of our son in 2016. Until that time, I can truly say that we had never experienced that same level and depth of God’s love and comfort that we received then and continue to receive. Perhaps it was because we had not needed it until then. The Words, “Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted” became more than just words on a page to us. They continue to sustain and carry us during holidays, birthdays, and any time his empty chair becomes overwhelming.

In the days to come, there will be times of reminiscing and sharing a lifetime of precious memories. There is such immeasurable comfort in this as well.

Each of us is grieving together but also individually. As a husband of almost 60 years, as a son and daughter-in-law, as grandsons, as siblings, as a sister-in-law and as Marilyn’s dear friends.

On the days that are difficult, reaching out to one another to process your feelings, to listen and to love each other through them, are so beneficial. Some of the most important differences we can make are in the lives of those we love the most.

In closing, I would like to share with you two passages of Scripture that have given great comfort to us as well as so many throughout the ages.

A reading from the Book of Psalms: Chapter 40, verses 1-4

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in our times of trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth may give way, and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river, whose streams make glad the city of our God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.

A reading from the Apostle Paul, from the Book of Romans: Chapter 8, verses 38-39

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers nor things present, nor things to come, neither height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

(Prayer)

Our Father in heaven, today we commit Marilyn’s spirit to Your love and merciful care. We thank You for her life and her light that continues to shine through the love that she gave and the beautiful legacy she leaves behind for us and so many others. I pray in the coming days that You, who comfort us in our times of mourning, and give us strength, please help us to offer the same comfort and strength to one another, that we ourselves will receive from You.

In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

(Benediction)

The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.

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Eulogy by Deryle Peaslee-Wood

Marilyn, In Memoriam… My Beautiful and Dearest Friend,

How I wish I could be there with you all today, but this memoir will have to suffice.

It is both exhilarating and painful to look back at our long and enduring friendship. I wish you essence was still here on this earth place, but I know you had to move on for many reasons. I also know this was not the start, and it will not be the end of our enduring friendship together. I still remember the first time we met at Rollings College our Freshman year in September 1963. We were both enrolled in the same music, English and French classes. I think it was the second day that we were walking back from the Music Conservatory across the lake at Rollins, and Marilyn was about four steps ahead of me. I remember saying, “Wait up! I think your name is Marilyn isn’t it?” I heard her name in class, I said, “I’m Deryle. Let’s walk together. I think we’re both in music school here.”

We were on our way to the Beanery to eat dinner, and we must’ve stayed there until it literally closed. As we talked we found out how much we had in common.

There were so many fond memories over the years that we’ve shared. And when we were not together being distances apart, myself in Florida and Marilyn in Boston, we would send cassette tapes back and forth each month sharing 30 to 60 minutes of various activities, thoughts and feelings that were going on in our lives. At that time, there were no cell phones and long distance was very expensive, so this was a very cheap and excellent way to communicate. Neither one of us had a problem talking on tape! I would look forward to that cassette coming every month. At Rollins College, Marilyn lived in a different dorm than I did, and I had pledged Kappa Alpha Theta and she did not, but that did not keep us apart. That first fall we were in the musical Kiss Me Kate together, and we also had a pool membership at the Langford hotel that was close to campus. We could absorb the sun while swimming and do our studies there. We would often walk down the main street in Winter Park, have lunch in one of the many cafes or go shopping. There were numerous walks together to the Music Conservatory every single day, listening to the peacocks on the other side of the lake. We were both in the Rollins choir and we were also both in an a cappella group at Rollins. One of the very heart warming memories I have is that when we were together, we would each race to the door to hold it for each other. We would both laugh about that. I’ve never encountered that with a another person!

The summer before sophomore year, 1964, I came to see Marilyn at her house in Dover, where I met her mom and I believe her grandparents as they were both still living next door. I spent a beautiful week there, and I remember making a strawberry dream cake together in her kitchen; her mother was so gracious and charming, and I fell in love with Massachusetts.

My second year at Rollins, I lived in the Theta sorority house, but that didn’t keep us apart. Marilyn was still my best friend. We signed up for sailing together as that was one of my favorite activities, and her parents had a large sailboat… and that is where we both met George. We all know how that story ended.

I transferred to Indiana University in the middle of my sophomore year just feeling that Rollins was so expensive, and that I could get a more extensive music education at Indiana University School of Music. I hated to leave my best friend, but I knew we would always see each other whenever possible. The following summer, Marilyn transferred to BU when George graduated in May ’65. I remember coming up with my mother and mother’s good friends to be in her wedding at Wellesley on August 27, 1966. We had trouble getting to her house as cows were blocking the road!

It was next that I visited George and Marilyn when they moved to their house in Dover. I was coming up to see them after Scott was born in 1971. My son, Philip, was 10 months old at that time.

I believe our next visit was when George and Marilyn had moved to Wellesley in Feb. 1972; once I came by myself, and once I brought Philip with me. I remember Marilyn’s cat Charlie who would always greet us by jumping out into the hallway and doing his cat screech. I’m not sure he liked strangers being in his home! I also remembered that we were there when Elvis Presley had passed away in 1977.

The next couple of visits I came with my son as Marilyn and George had moved to their Sherborn home in August 1979. We also went to Cape Cod to Marilyn’s parents’ beautiful new home that they had built in 1973. It was such an awesome experience. Marilyn and I would ride bikes into town and all around Cape Cod while her mom would the boys.

One of the times when were there, George wanted to take Marilyn, myself, and the boys on his sunfish for a sail. Marilyn and I thought it would be too crowded with five of us on the boat. She wasn’t as keen to sail as I was so she said she would stay and watch the boys and that I should go with George. Little did I know we were sailing across Buzzards Bay to Marion. It was a beautiful day but the water was still a bit cold even in July. Though the waves weren’t rough, they were still swells in the bay. It took us over three and a half hours to get back, and I was so glad that we did not take the boys. George was an excellent sailor and I loved to sail more than any other activity! I had quite a bit of knowledge about sailing and had sailing lessons. I had crewed on Lake Michigan and also owned a small sailboat since the age of 10; but it was still a long afternoon, and I was really ready to come in!

Philip and I also visited George and Marilyn when they moved to Sherborn in 1979. I went to one of the elderly care homes, Meadow Brook, where Marilyn was the Recreational Director at that time, and I got to see some of her wonderful friends there. We took the boys to the Audubon wildlife park. It was gorgeous and beautiful. I also remember going to a cranberry bog… just so many wonderful experiences. My son also remembers these trips and being with Scott, Marilyn, and George.

I think Marilyn and Scott came to visit us in Fort Myers in 1980. I remember going to the Thomas Edison winter home in Fort Myers and our beautiful beach. The boys probably were nine and ten years old.

After I moved to North Carolina, it wasn’t until 2000 that I made another trip to see my dear friend. Again, we had such a fabulous time. I’m so glad that I did visit. Marilyn and I would sing together while she played the piano. We also went to a dinner theater that performed selections from Broadway musicals. We worked in her garden and just spent much quality time being together and talking about life as our views of life in general were so similar. We both grew up with grandparents close by and their being a large part of our lives; also both of us were only children who both loved art, music, the outdoors, animals, family and the elderly. Even our mothers passed away a month apart.

I wish we could’ve lived physically closer to each other. We spoke maybe two to three times a year, and then in the last couple of years quite a bit more often. Lately it was every month to two weeks. I will miss her so much! The last time I spoke with her, Feb. 15, 2024, the Thursday before she passed away, I just felt something was very wrong, but I really didn’t know what it was. Her mind was sharp, and I knew physically she was not doing well. We just didn’t know that that conversation would be our last one. I’m just so glad that we had our many conversations and could relive some of our memories together.

Marilyn was a very special person and my dearest friend. It was an honor to know her and have her grace in my life. Always with Love and many blessings I will always keep her family in my heart.

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Appreciation For The Help In Making This Book

Hi Catherine and Maureen,

I’ve just received the memory book that you helped so much to create for Marilyn. I am very impressed, and grateful for the time and effort and patience you both put into creating the website that has generated this very comforting trip through her life.

The experience of locating, arranging, and delivering up to you both, in barely three weeks, the volume of pictures that seemed to increase by the day very much shaped my path in dealing with her passing.

We had 60 years together the end of which neither of us saw coming last February. Fortunately, quite early in contacting you at the beginning of the website/obituary project I saw that her life was one to celebrate far more than to mourn. Your help in organizing and putting into place the materials that I was gathering increasingly reminded me how well we had made a difference not only in our own lives but also in the lives of others.

It was if I had been standing at the edge of a diving board and someone had suddenly kicked me off it. In that moment, there was no escaping gravity, only a choice to be made how I would hit the water. Mourning would be a belly flop. Orienting on the way down to enter the water cleanly would be a celebration and in the moment I succeeded in the latter.

So much of counseling in such times seems to deal with recovering from a belly flop, helping the survivors to get the through the sense of loss and grieving. You helped me celebrate and for that I am very grateful.

For what it may be worth, I would ask survivors early if there was opportunity in the process to celebrate the life of the departed, to carry forward in memory, what life could no longer do, to guide and comfort the lives of the survivors.

Doing so for me has put me in a good place, both at the outset and continuing now ten months later. Her story that you helped create on the net and in the book is one of talent, skill, beauty, and perhaps most telling, one of joy for me, my son, my family and our mutual friends to carry us forward.

Although my life is different these days without my close companion, I have family and friends in a closer circle around me than I had before Marilyn passed, along with hobbies and other pleasant tasks to occupy me for however many years are left to me.

Thank you again for helping me get off the starting line in ways both positive and fulfilling.

Best wishes to you both,

George