Marian Roberts Hicks

Marian Roberts Hicks of Braselton passed away on March 4, 2015 after a courageous battle with a rare form of cancer, surrounded by her loving family. She waged that battle of fourteen months with her characteristic courage, grace, and dignity. She was a devoted wife, a loving mother and grandmother, an accomplished musician and a highly successful educator whose career spanned forty-two years.

Born April 13, 1948, she was the daughter of the late Alton B. Roberts, Jr. of Lithonia, and Ramona Westwick Roberts. She was named for her paternal grandmother Mercer Marion Stephenson Roberts who was a major influence on her life. Among the many things Mrs. Roberts provided Marian were twelve years of training in classical piano, that helped shape a lifelong love of music. Marian entered Samford University in the fall of 1966 as a music major concentrating in piano. That same year Marian pledged Chi Omega and she enjoyed friendships with several of her Chi Omega sisters throughout her life. After two years as a music major Marian felt as she described it that “...the practice rooms were closing in on me”, changed majors to education and found her second passion. By choosing that path she was following in the footsteps of her maternal grandmother Ethyle Wiggins Westwick by becoming an elementary school teacher and then an elementary school principal.

Marian was engaged to Charles W. Hicks, Jr. on Christmas eve 1970, at Saint Luke's Episcopal Church, and they were married on June 24, 1972. These two dates, December 24th and June 24th remained important to them. For many years they commemorated these events by spending Christmas eve at St. Luke's and the last week in June at Sea Island where they had honeymooned. They had known each other most of their lives and their families, her paternal, his maternal, had known each other for well over one hundred years. There were no surprises and the couple would often say that there were very few adjustments to being married as they shared the same friends, the same values and the same priorities. They both also enjoyed music so those weekends when there were no family get-togethers, were often spent at performances of the Atlanta Symphony or performances at the Alliance or the Fox. While there were fewer free weekends in later years, with the birth of their son and increasing career responsibilities, these remained favorite past times when schedules permitted. They often described themselves as “best friends” and as a “team”. Their best times were always the times they spent together.

During her career Marian was first a teacher in DeKalb County and then in Gwinnett County. It was in the Gwinnett County School System that she first became an administrator, and later was also an administrator in the Forsyth County School System. She served as principal of four schools in Gwinnett County: Centerville, Shiloh, Camp Creek, and Freeman's Mill, and one in Forsyth County, Daves Creek. She took great pride in each of those schools, and in the fact that she had such excellent assistant principals. She was particularly gratified that seven of those ten assistant principals became principals in their own right, and one of those became an associate superintendent as well.

Marian thoroughly enjoyed her career and although it usually involved 70+ hour work weeks, when asked how she did it would respond with the familiar cliché, “I have never worked a day because I love what I do.” She was known for her insistence on excellence in every facet of her schools' operations earning the nickname from some on her staff of “Shiny Floors and High Test Scores.” She also strongly believed that children had a greater capacity to learn than there was time to each so time should not be spent on things that did not support the education mission. Marian's diligence was something her grandmother had observed many years before. In a note to Marian in 1977, Mrs. Roberts included a quotation from Wordsworth's poem “St. Augustine's Ladder” which she felt described the commitment her granddaughter had exhibited in her music and graduate studies...

“...The heights by great men

reached and kept

were not attained by

sudden flight

but they while their

companion slept

were toiling upward

in the night,...”

That unwavering commitment to whatever she undertook was captured by an event that occurred some thirty-five years later as Marian ended her career. It was the tradition at Freeman's Mill that a retiring principal would walk throughout the school at the end of that last day of class before the summer break and teachers, staff, PTA members, and students would hold up signs with farewell messages and accolades. There were many signs and many well wishes that lined those halls that day, but one sign was particularly powerful. It was being held by fourth grade teacher Mark Collins. It simply read “Faithful”. No word is more fitting to describe her forty-two years as an educator than that one.

Marian was the consummate professional with an unrelenting focus on being an effective administrator and curriculum leader. At the same time she was an unapologetic people person who had a genuine affection for colleagues, faculties and staffs, parents and students. Most importantly, she made a difference for the children and communities she served.

Marian was a devout Christian throughout her life and was a member of Saint Barnabas Anglican Church in Dunwoody.

She is survived by her husband of forty-two years, her son Charles Wilton Hicks, III, and his wife Jennifer, two adored grandsons, Charles Wilton Hicks, IV, and Nathan Howard Hicks, her mother, a brother Charles A. Roberts and his wife Mona, sisters Cathy Roberts Alred and her husband Thomas, Linda Roberts Alred and her husband Michael, and Judith Hicks Stephenson and her husband Larry, and several nieces and nephews.

The family expresses its deepest appreciation to the physicians and staffs of the Mayo Clinic, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the Northeast Georgia Diagnostic Clinic, and the Winship Cancer Institute and Emory Johns Creek Hospital, for their efforts on behalf of our beloved wife and mother.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, March 7, 2015 at H. M. Patterson & Son - Spring Hill from 1 until 5 o'clock. Funeral services will be held at 2 o'clock on Sunday, March 8, 2015 at Saint Barnabas Anglican Church, 4795 North Peachtree Road, Dunwoody, Georgia 30338. The Right Rev. Chandler Jones officiating. Interment will follow at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs.

In lieu of flowers memorial gifts may be made to Saint Barnabas Anglican Church, 4795 North Peachtree Road, Dunwoody, Georgia 30338 or another charity of choice. Online condolences may be made at hmpattersonspringhill.com.