Vivian A Bird

Vivian Atkinson Bird passed away May 20th at John Knox Village, Orange City. She was 90 years old. She was born Laura Vivian Atkinson May 24, 1924, in Camden, New Jersey. After the death of her parents in 1936, she attended boarding high school at St. Mary's Hall, Burlington, New Jersey. She went on to study French and Spanish at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and attended graduate school at Penn State University, State College, Pennsylvania, where she met her husband, Robert George Bird (Bob). The family lived in Baltimore, Maryland and Ithaca, New York before moving to Ormond Beach in 1963. Vivian held a number of language teaching posts including Mainland Junior High from 1964 to 1967 and Seabreeze Senior High from 1969 to 1974. She and Bob moved to Maitland, Florida, in 1980. Vivian relocated to John Knox Village in 2003. Friends and family will cherish Vivian as an avid talker, an expression of her love of companionship. She enjoyed humor, although by and large the joke teller, generally her husband, Bob, needed to explain the jokes first. Vivian was a deeply loving and even-handed spouse and mom. Life-long a person of faith, she grew up in the Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church, but spent most of her adult life in the Religious Society of Friends. She once wrote, “when I sat in my first Quaker Meetings, I felt as if I had come home.” As much as anyone we know, she tried to live by the principles of her faith, including the spiritual equality of all people whatever their origin, status, or beliefs; interacting with all people with compassion and respect; and committing to nonviolent means of resolving conflict. Vivian was passionate about her teaching. Like public school teachers today, she devoted many uncompensated hours beyond her obligations to prepare lessons and to work with individual students. Then,, as teachers do today, she spent her own money on educational materials the schools didn't have the resources to provide. Vivian was preceded in death by her brother, Russell; sister, Frances and husband, Bob. She is survived by sons, Charles E. Bird of Port Orange and Robert A. Bird of Ormond Beach. A memorial service in the manner of Friends meeting will be held Saturday, June 20, 2015 at 2:00 pm in the Chapel at John Knox Village, 628 Monastery Road, Orange City. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Friends Service Committee at www.afsc.org/give. The family is grateful to the staff of Majestic Oaks at John Knox Village and Halifax Health Hospice for their superb and compassionate care.