Margaret Devlin Atherley

Margaret Devlin Atherley, a resident of Cedar Brook at the Glen in the Willow Valley Retirement Community, died on Saturday October 6, 2012.

Born March 6, 1923 in Brooklyn, New York, Margaret attended school there until her enlistment in the Women’s Army Corps in July 1944. She served for two years with an Air Force unit and achieved the rank of Corporal. After receiving her discharge, she attended Columbia University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Later, she attended the University of Michigan and earned a Masters degree in Literature in 1955. In April 1972, she was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in Curriculum and Supervision.

In September, 1952, she married Richard D. Atherley and is survived by him and her beloved children: Bruce (Meredith) of Cincinnati, OH; Beth Butler (John) of Lancaster, PA; and Rich (Jackie) of Grantham, NH.  She had five grandsons including Andy, a junior at Manheim Township HS, and Dan, a freshman at The College of William and Mary. Bruce’s son Ryan is a junior at Clemson University, Eric works for the government in Washington, D.C., and Scott is working on his Ph.D. at George Mason University. Her family and the boys affectionately called her Abu (from abuela, meaning grandmother.)

Margaret was an amateur artist and loved to do oil painting, collected salt cellars, mastered needlepoint, and enjoyed playing bridge. She was a devoted cub scout leader, volunteered as a docent in the Tucson Museum of Art, and taught pre-Columbian art to schoolchildren in Tucson.  Margaret loved children and her family thought of her as the “Den mother to the world.”

In 1987, she retired with her husband and moved from Pittsburgh to Tucson, Arizona and enjoyed its warm sunny days. Her summer escape was to her home on Nantucket Island which she and her husband built in 1975. They moved to Willow Valley in mid-2004 and she thoroughly enjoyed the years spent living in Spring Run as well as the excellent care she received at Cedar Brook.

Private Interment will be at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery. Contributions in lieu of flowers may be made to the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation, Inc.,1530 Greenview Drive SW, Suite 210, Rochester MN 55902; the Alzheimer’s Association, P.O. Box 96011, Washington DC 20090-6011; or the Women In Military Service for America Memorial, Women’s Memorial Foundation, Dept. 560, Washington DC 20042-0560. To send the family an online condolence, please visit SnyderFuneralHome.com Charles F. Snyder Jr. Funeral Home & Crematory  717-560-5100