Marion Ann Waters Bressler of State College died peacefully at her Waring Avenue home on Saturday, February 2, 2013. At 91, she succumbed after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.
Born on July 20, 1921 in Nanticoke, PA to William W. Waters, M.D. and Anna Owens Waters, she graduated from Wilkes Barre Institute, attended Bucknell Junior College (now Wilkes University), and earned the B.A. at Bucknell University, where she went on to receive her M.A. in history in 1943. While pursuing further graduate study in American history at the University of Pennsylvania, she began her professional teaching career at Haddon Heights High School in New Jersey; later she taught history and English at the Penn State Ogontz campus (now Penn State Abington).
In 1948 she married Leo A. Bressler, who earned a doctorate in American Civilization at Penn. In 1951 the couple moved to State College with the first of their two children. Marion Bressler taught American history at the University Park campus of Penn State until 1959, when she joined the faculty at the newly-built State College Area High School. In 1960 she introduced the Advanced Placement program at SCAHS, making this among the first public high schools in the nation to adopt the Educational Testing Service curriculum. She joined ETS as a consultant, served by invitation as a reader/grader for AP exams at Princeton, NJ, and conducted seminars for AP American history teachers from throughout the Northeast. In the mid-1960s she served as president of the State College Area Education Association.
From 1965 to 1983, while still a full-time faculty member at SCAHS, she also taught in the Penn State Continuing Education program. From 1971 to 1975 she offered in addition a PSU summer graduate course in humanities for secondary-school instructors. With her husband she co-authored two books on modern social and political issues published by Prentice Hall (1970, 1977), and co-edited a collection of readings in American history issued by Houghton-Mifflin (1972). As an educator, she remembered fondly her cooperation with then Assistant Coach Joe Paterno as she tutored members of the PSU football team, including several of its greatest players.
After her formal retirement in 1983, Marion continued as a regular substitute at SCAHS, and as an ETS consultant. She found new fulfillment in designing and teaching courses for the Community Academy for Lifelong Learning (CALL), continuing this involvement well into her ninth decade. In 2000 the Centre County Bicentennial Committee honored her as a Central Pennsylvania "Living Legend" in education. She never stopped dreaming of a return to the classroom and recapturing the thrill she experienced in sharing her love of American History. During her last years she remained in communication with generations of her students, and she was touched to the heart by those who continued to send appreciative notes and fond greetings even after she could no longer respond in kind.
A member of Faith United Church of Christ for nearly sixty years, Marion served on the Consistory and enjoyed a host of less official involvements. An avid bridge player, she cherished the close friendships that grew from her club gatherings. In addition, she shared well over a half-century of memories with the Coffee Hour group in her State College neighborhood. She valued greatly her membership in the Order of the Eastern Star. She volunteered at various times with the Red Cross, with Meals on Wheels, and other organizations.
Along with her husband of 46 years and both of her children, Marion Bressler was a proud Pennsylvanian. But in her retirement she also felt blessed to enjoy trips to Germany, Austria, England, and her beloved ancestral homeland of Wales. Nothing brought her greater joy than spending time with her children, their spouses, and her grandchildren. Although she did not live to see the birth of her first great-grandchild, expected in the summer of 2013, her happiness at the announcement last fall knew no bounds. Her devotion to family, friends, and teaching defined Marion Bressler; her deepest wish for her students, friends, and descendants was that they should continue to see family and education as the very anchors of the Christian life.
She was predeceased by her husband, Leo A. Bressler, Ph.D., in 1995. Surviving are her son, William L. Bressler, M.D. and his wife Linda Mowery Bressler (Huntingdon, PA); her daughter, Ann Lee Bressler, Ph.D. and her husband Robin B. Barnes, Ph.D. (Davidson, NC); her grandchildren, David W. Bressler (Santa Fe, NM), Adam L. Bressler (Los Angeles, CA), John W. Bressler and wife Caroline Parker Bressler (Washington, DC), Molly L. Barnes (Chapel Hill, NC), and Morgan B. Barnes (Davidson, NC). She is also survived by her sister, Charlotte Waters Rowland, M.D. (Wayne, PA), and sister in law, Phyllis R. Bressler (Shamokin, PA).
The family would like to thank County Homemakers, Comfort Keepers, Home Instead, and Centre Home Care/Centre Crossings Hospice, and expresses deepest gratitude to Marion's personal caregivers over these past months, Julia Young, Norma Weaver, and others whose help and sympathetic understanding we will never forget. Our thanks as well go to Rev. Gregory J. Allen.
A service of remembrance and gratitude will be held at Faith U.C.C., 300 E. College Avenue, State College, PA 16801, at 1 PM on Saturday, February 9. A reception will follow at the church. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Faith United Church of Christ.
A guest book can be signed or condolences sent to the family at www.heintzelmanfuneralhome.com.