Mary Spatz

Mary E. Spatz, 75, of Bruceville Road, Ulster County, NY, died following a brief illness on December 11 at Sharon Hospital, Sharon, CT.

Mary was born in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn on May 3, 1937 to the late Francis Sherk and Elizabeth Tarleton Sherk.

The family moved to Nutley, NJ where Mary excelled in church choir and school chorus, graduating from Nutley High School in 1955. She earned an associates degree in marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson College. She married the late Thomas C. Spatz of Nutley on June 20, 1959. The couple moved to Washington, NJ in 1963 and raised two sons, Christopher T. Spatz of High Falls, NY and Peter A. Spatz of Boise, ID.

Mary worked for twenty years as the Transportation Coordinator of the Warren Hills Regional School system, retiring in 1999. She moved to the Lehigh Valley in 1986, and to Ulster County, NY in 2006. Mary traveled widely in North America and Western Europe with family, friends and as a Warren Hills' chaperone. A lifetime patron of fine art, she received from the Arts Council of Easton in 2005 their patron-of-the-year award. She volunteered at churches, soup kitchens and senior centers, and donated to dozens of charities. A fanciful gardener and champion of the enchanted, she sowed intimate habitats for butterflies and hummingbirds, angels, nymphs and fairies. Her gratitude for gifts received was matched only by her legacy for penning gracious thank you notes and letters, and for bestowing impeccably touching Christmas cards and birthday presents.

She is survived by her sons; and by her sister, Christina Sherk of Brick, NJ, and by her brother, David Sherk of San Francisco, CA.; nephews, Nathan Sherk of Chicago, IL. and Andrew Sherk of Phoenix, AZ.

A memorial service in May, 2013 will be announced. Donations are welcomed for the Mary Spatz Memorial Fund, WMHT, Classical Radio, www.heiferfoundation.org.

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