Martha Ziegler

ZIEGLER Martha (Hanes), age 84, died Sept 13, 2014. A resident of Woburn, Somerville, Cambridge, and Lexington, she was born in 1930 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She is survived by her son Fred of Arlington, her daughter, Mary Ann of Lexington, and her sister, Lois Deputy and husband, Richard of Fort Wayne, IN; as well as numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. She is also survived by legions of friends and colleagues across the country and the world. Martha attended Franklin College and was honored by them in 2013. Indeed, she was honored many times over her life. Martha gained national recognition as a leader and activist in the fight to secure educational rights for children with disabilities--this, at a time in our country when millions of children were legally excluded from school and parents were urged to institutionalize their children. Working in Massachusetts with a coalition of professional organizations seeking to end this exclusion, Martha spearheaded a coalition of parent-led organizations, including the Federation for Children with Special Needs, which she founded in 1974. With her leadership, parents across the country worked in partnership with professionals to secure crucial educational rights for all children with disabilities. Today, generations who have benefited from Martha’s work are living previously unimaginable lives as valued members of their communities. Martha’s passion for educational rights for children with disabilities was a natural progression of her passion for social justice and her civil rights activism through the sixties. Martha recalled watching her school-aged daughter Mary Ann, who has autism, stand at the window and watch her younger brother, Fred, head to school every morning. Participating in the Martin Luther King March on Washington a few years earlier drove home the need to organize to end this kind of exclusion also. “Don’t mourn, organize” became one of our mottos. Across this country, mothers and fathers of children with disabilities, adults with disabilities, and many professionals knew and loved Martha. Not only as a great leader, but also as a loving mother and as a true and personal friend to so many. She is beloved for her outstanding accomplishments, indeed, but also for her wit, her humor, her love of her family and friends, and her love of life beginning with lunch! A memorial service will be held at the Church of Our Redeemer on Thursday, Oct 2 2014 at 11:00am, 6 Meriam St, Lexington, MA. Relatives and friends are kindly invited to attend. Donations in her name may be made to the Federation for Children with Special Needs (the organization she founded), 529 Main St, Suite Suite 1M3, Charlestown, MA 02129. Arrangements under the direction of the Douglass Funeral Home. Douglass Funeral Home Lexington, 781-862-1800 www.douglassfh.com