Marjory “Marge” Lennihan – researcher in genetics and biochemistry, pianist, third grade teacher, world traveler, nature lover, wildflower gardener and loving wife, mother and grandmother – passed away peacefully on March 16, 2022 in her home in Wilmington. She was 94.
Marge grew up in Lexington, Mass. Her father was a civil engineer and her mother a homemaker. At Radcliffe College, she studied botany and music. There she made lifelong friends and met her future husband, Dr. Richard “Dick” Lennihan. While at Radcliffe she studied genetics and sang with the Radcliffe Choral Society. The chorus joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in the spring of 1945. Conductor Koussevitzky halted the performance to announce that Germany had surrendered and the war in Europe ended. He then turned to conduct the chorus in Beethoven’s Ode to Joy whose words celebrate the brotherhood of humanity.
After graduation Marge worked as a genetics researcher studying inherited diseases in Minneapolis. In 1948 she married Dick Lennihan and they moved to New York City where Marge was a researcher in the lab of Dr. Georgios Papanikolaou, discoverer of the Pap smear.
In 1962 they moved to Wilmington. When all of her children were school age she studied education and trained to be a teacher. She guided her third grade classes at the Calvin R. McCullough Elementary School through the early years of desegregation. She shared her love of nature and poetry with her students, bringing in treasures like bird nests, autumn leaves and pine cones, and reading aloud from her favorite poets like Langston Hughes.
During her retirement she gardened during the summer and made quilts during the winter. Marge turned her suburban lawn into a wildflower meadow to create a haven for butterflies, hummingbirds and winged pollinators. She worked as a volunteer for the Brandywine Conservancy’s wildflower conservation program; the Delaware Center for Horticulture; and the Secret Garden, a teaching garden for the Ministry of Caring Childcare Center.
As a member of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church during the 1960s and 1970s, Marge sang in the choir and led a women’s discussion group including topics like antiwar protests and the civil rights movement at the encouragement of Rev. Cloud Rutter.
Marge and Dick loved to travel, and their annual trips spanned the globe, including Alaska and the Galapagos; the Trans-Siberian Railroad across China, Mongolia and Russia; a tour of the gardens of Ireland; and an 80th birthday trip to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. They spent time every summer at Dick’s childhood summer home on Martha’s Vineyard.
Marge was a wonderful mother, sharing with her children her love of nature, her intellectual curiosity and her humanitarian ideals. She taught her children to be creative through sewing, cooking, gardening, photography and making art.
She is survived by her sister, Ruth, and her five children: Begabati Marion Lennihan, holistic health practitioner in Boston; Laura Lennihan, neurologist in New York City; Mark Lennihan, recently retired photojournalist with The Associated Press in New York; Lisa Lennihan, psychoanalyst in Milwaukee; and Holly Lennihan, architect specializing in net zero energy buildings in Washington, DC. She is also survived by her eight grandchildren – Andrea, Jonathan, Nora, Zoe, Peter, Flora, Cate and Sally. She is predeceased by her husband, vascular surgeon Dr. Richard Lennihan, Jr., MD.
Donations are suggested to the Brandywine Conservancy at brandywine.org or The Ministry of Caring at ministryofcaring.org.
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