Marie Hershkowitz

1954 - 2013

NORTHAMPTON - Marie Hershkowitz, 59, died Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013, at home, in Northampton, after a valiant four-month struggle with a malignant glioblastoma brain tumor. Diagnosed at surgery on Aug. 6, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, this tumor did not respond to a month of post-operative radiation therapy and oral chemotherapy, and was rapidly fatal. Marie came home from Boston Oct. 1, to the loving care of her family, and to the kind and attentive care of Cooley Dickinson Hospice staff during the last five weeks of her life.

Marie was born March 11, 1954, in New York City, the daughter of Dr. Melvin Hershkowitz and Joanna Lega. She grew up in Manhattan, N.Y., attended the United Nations International School, the Ethical Culture School, and the Fieldston Preparatory School, where she was a member of the class of 1972. At Fieldston, Marie met Nicole Gordon Bernstein, later founding executive director of the N.Y.C. Campaign Finance Board, who became her closest and lifelong friend.

Marie then enrolled at Hampshire College, a newly established educational institution with a non-traditional, experimental curriculum. At Hampshire, Marie made two more lifelong friends, Dr. Mary James, now professor of physics at Reed College in Oregon, and Dr. Roger Rogalski, now an orthopedic surgeon in Nevada and California. Marie graduated from Hampshire College in May 1977, having taken a year off to live, work and study in Italy.

After graduating, Marie worked in Northampton at a wide variety of local businesses and institutions, including Bart's Ice Cream Shop, the Jack August Restaurant, and Hampshire College where she worked in the library from 1979 to 1984. While working at Hampshire, Marie met her future husband Stephen Hathaway, manager of the science laboratories. Oct. 2, 1982, they were married in the presence of Steve's parents and four generations of Marie's family, her grandfather, father, brother and nieces. Marie and Steve settled in Northampton, eventually moving to their house on Northern Avenue, where they have lived for 25 years.

After leaving Hampshire and starting her family, Marie took medical assisting courses at Springfield Technical Community College, and worked at Valley Health Plan from 1986 to 1987. As much as she enjoyed working in the medical field, Marie concluded that her real calling was working with children and was to work in this field for the rest of her life. From 1987 to 1989 she worked as an infant caregiver at Smith College, as an assistant at Children's Aid and Family Services, and as a substitute teacher at the Hampshire College Children's Center. In 1991, Marie took a job as an assistant teacher in the Reach Program Early Intervention Agency, where she worked until 1998. She then became a substitute teacher in Amherst, Westhampton and Northampton schools until 2001, when she took a job as an ESP at the Bridge Street School in Northampton. Here, Marie's skills in helping children with Asperger's syndrome, and various other disabilities, to overcome their deficiencies in reading and mathematics were acknowledged and appreciated by her colleagues, students and their families. Her accomplishments were recognized with an Appreciation Award from the Northampton Special Education Parent Advisory Council in 2007 and again in 2012, at which a parent of one of her students said Marie was "a saint in human form for our family", and was "a thoughtful, considerate and wise woman". This year, Marie directed the 4th and 5th grade section of the newly formed math club at Bridge Street School, which met once a week for an early morning preschool session with a group of enthusiastic students.

A common thread through all of Marie's life was giving and caring. This took the form of gifts, her time and particularly through her professional life. For 25 years, Marie worked in health care, early childhood education, and finally in elementary education, and eventually with a focus on children with special needs. Marie loved children, and this showed whether she was caring for infants, rejoicing with toddlers and preschoolers as they blossomed into school-age children, and tenaciously working with primary school children to help them acquire the skills they need to succeed in spite of their challenges. Marie committed herself wholly to whatever she did, and this showed in her ability to make a difference in the lives she touched.

In addition to Marie's professional activities, she was actively involved in the community. She made regular donations of her blood to the Red Cross Blood Bank, where her rare blood type, B-Negative, was in great demand. This unpublicized generosity was typical of Marie's character and unselfish devotion to helping friends, neighbors and strangers with problems in their daily lives, and it continued throughout her life. In early 1995 she became a valued volunteer at AIDS Care, where the program manager praised her rare skills to connect with people, to help with difficult tasks, and as a role model for other staff members. Marie and her dear friend Kathy Boudreau campaigned for the legislation to ban Greyhound racing in Massachusetts, which passed in 2008. Marie and Steve also fostered 14 Greyhounds between 1999 and 2002, on their way to good homes. Later, Marie was active in the North Street Neighborhood Association, where she was passionately involved in efforts to preserve wetlands and other neighborhood concerns.

Marie is survived by her husband Stephen Hathaway; her sons Benjamin Hathaway, an alumnus of Columbia University, and Samuel Hathaway, an alumnus of Middlebury College; her father Dr. Melvin Hershkowitz; her brother Paul Hershkowitz of Lansing, Mich.; her nieces Ann Hershkowitz Green of Hyattsville, Md., and Mary Hershkowitz Farkas of Cold Spring, N.Y.; and her three month old grandniece Olivia Marie Green.

Memorial donations to remember and preserve Marie's life and work, may be sent to the American Brain Tumor Association, 8550 West Bryn Mawr Avenue, Suite 550, Chicago, IL 60631-3225 (773-577-8750); Greyhound Friends, Inc., 167 Saddle Hill Road, Hopkinton, MA 01748 (508-435-5969); or to Asperger's Association of New England, 51 Water St., Suite 206, Watertown, MA 02472 (617-393-3824).

A memorial tribute to Marie will be held in late January 2014. Details will be announced. For additional information, friends and family may contact Stephen Hathaway at sbhathaway@gmail.com or call at (413)586-4341.

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