Obituary of Mary Martha Whitworth

Milton – Mary Martha Whitworth, 79, died unexpectedly Friday April 26, 2019. 

Mary Martha was born on February 6, 1940 in Clarkesville, Tennessee, the daughter of James and Ruth (Edmondson) Whitworth.

Mary Martha attended Duke University before graduating from The University of Delaware with a Bachelors Degree in Sociology. She received her Master’s degree in Education from Marywood College and continued her graduate studies in Innovative Education at Southern Illinois University.

For many years she ran her own educational consulting company, Mary Martha Associates, where she was able to improve the lives of tens of thousands of children by teaching her innovative approach to education to thousands of teachers. In recent years she continued that mission at The University of Vermont while helping to raise her grandsons. Mary Martha was also an educational author, the founder and Director of the Philadelphia Humanistic Education Center, owner of Skippack Children’s Books, Executive Director of Child Care Systems, President of a chapter of American Association of University Women, and an active member of The Women of UVM.

Her life’s passions were to make positive change in education and in people’s lives, and to travel the world. She was incredibly successful in both.

Mary Martha is survived by her son Toryn Howe and his wife Dana and their children Ana and Ellie, of Georgetown, TX and by her daughter Liesl Moland and her husband Magne and their sons Magne and Soren, of Milton, by her sister Margaret Hazzard of AR.  She was predeceased by her son Peter Whitworth Howe and her sister Diana Isaacson.

A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, May 25, 2019 at 2pm in the Minor Funeral Home in Milton.  Friends may call on the family from Noon- until the hour of the service.