April 28, 2005

OBITUARIES

Mary W. Chapman

Mary W. Chapman, admired for her leadership in social justice causes, died on Tuesday, April 19, at Friends Care Community. She was 73.

Mary Pauline Williamson was born in Nashville on May 31, 1931. Her mother, Marianna Boettger Williamson, was an accomplished pianist, and her father, James H. Williamson, would become an engineering faculty member of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Mary earned a BA at the University of Kansas in 1953 and a master’s in bacteriology at Tennessee in 1954. She married Charles Mayhew, with whom she raised two sons, James and Thomas. While living in Frederick, Md., Mary and her husband worked for the Army. Later, Mary worked as a bacteriologist in a county veterinary laboratory. She was formally trained as a potter in Frederick from 1968 to ’71.

Having opposed racial segregation when she was in college, Mary kept developing as an activist. For example, she participated in the great 1963 march on Washington, D.C. that Martin Luther King Jr. led.

Charles Mayhew obtained a position with the Environmental Protection Agency and the family spent some time on Dauphin Island, Ala., and Cincinnati, when Charles was transferred. About 1977, Mary obtained an amicable divorce from Charles, and she lived for a time in Yellow Springs.

Mary moved to the Washington, D.C., area to find work and to be near longtime friends. While earning a stipend with the National Moratorium on Prison Construction, she lived in a Mennonite group house. She briefly served as national coordinator of the Moratorium and subsequently coordinated the D.C. Coalition Against the Death Penalty, organizing vigils at the U.S. Supreme Court whenever there was an execution in the U.S.

In January 1979 Mary met Gordon Chapman at a potluck supper of the Washington Peace Center. Through human rights activities they grew close and were married three years later. After about six years away from pottery, in 1983 Mary gained great satisfaction getting her hands back into clay, but she couldn’t simply be a potter. The contra war in Nicaragua motivated Mary and ceramic artist Dolly Pomerleau to organize a fundraiser for village potters of Nicaragua.

Dolly had been a cofounder of the Quixote Center, a Catholic human rights organization in Hyattsville, Md. With organizing help from the Quixote Center and the John XXIII Center in Managua, by 1987 Potters for Peace was sending teams of U.S. potters to help village potters make fuel-efficient kilns, identify safe glazes and market to North America and Europe. Through coordinator Ron Rivera, Potters for Peace projects, such as the making of basic ceramic water filters, have been spread to Caribbean nations, Africa and, most recently, Southeast Asia.

Moving with Gordon to Yellow Springs in March 1993, Mary became active in the Community Pottery, Jicaro (Nicaragua) Sister Village Committee, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, peace efforts and other projects.

In addition to Gordon, Mary is survived by her brother, Robert Williamson; sons, James and Tom Mayhew; four grandchildren; Gordon’s children, Douglas and Adrienne Chapman; and countless other loved ones.

A celebration of Mary’s life will be held Sunday, May 1, at 2 p.m., in the Glen Helen Building.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Yellow Springs, P.O. Box 480; Friends Care Community, 150 East Herman, or Hospice of Dayton, 324 Wil-mington Avenue, Dayton 45420.

Jason Wilfred Sarnow

Jason Wilfred Sarnow died on Friday, April 15, at Friends Care Community. He was 78.

Born in New Bedford, Mass., on Sept. 21, 1926, he was the youngest of three children of Morris Sarnowitz, who was born in Ostrow, Poland, and Bertha Brown Sarnowitz, who was born in Chercossy, south of Kiev. In 1928 Jason’s family moved to the Bronx, where they lived for many years.

He was drafted during World War II. He graduated as a chemistry major from the City College of New York, and he did graduate work at Oberlin College. For 30 years he was employed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

He came to live in Yellow Springs because of its friendly atmosphere. He loved the village and the many friends who collected at The Emporium “round table.” He was too ill to thank them for their card, but he intended to write them a letter in which he would have expressed gratitude for their friendship.

Jason liked to reminisce about his childhood. He and his sisters, for instance, took advantage of the movie passes given in return for advertising in the windows of Morris’s shoe shop. On Saturdays they took a box of fried chicken and spent the afternoon at the Mt. Eden and the Ogden Theaters.

He was an avid reader, and he read The New York Times until his failing eyesight caused him to slow down. He never complained. He liked all sports, especially football. He also liked trees, and his property stands as a testimonial to that. He was married to Sarah Joan Anckney, and they had two children together, Mark Edward Sarnow and Hannah Rachel Sarnow. His children were the great joy of his life, and he was proud of all their accomplishments from the first step on.

He was preceded in death by his parents, and sisters, Ruth and Leah.

He is survived by his wife and children; a nephew from New York (who called him “Unk”) and a niece, Ellen, also of New York.

Plans for a memorial service will be announced in the near future.

Lorraine Mae Wright

Lorraine Mae Wright died on Wednesday, April 20, at the Deaconess Hospital in Cincinnati. She was 47.

Born on Dec. 7, 1957, in Dayton, she was the daughter of Joseph and Frances Lewis.

She attended the Yellow Springs public schools and worked as a registered nurse and administrator for Heartland Home Care in Cincinnati.

She is survived by her husband, Charles Wright Jr.; her parents, Joseph and Frances Lewis of Yellow Springs; children, Charles III and Lauren Wright; siblings, Joseph Lewis II and his wife, Dianne, and Dianne Lewis; and a host of other relatives and friends.

Funeral services were held Tuesday, April 26, at the Thompson, Hall & Jordan Funeral Home in Cincinnati, with interment at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.

Irwin Inman memorial

A memorial service will be held for Irwin Inman on Saturday, May 7, 2 p.m., in the Glen Helen Building.

Inman died on Saturday, March 12, following a brief illness. He was 87.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Antioch College, Office of Development, 795 Livermore Street.