Marie Schluter

East Lyme - Marie Schluter, retired university administrator, traveler, and mentor to generations of family and friends, died Tuesday, July 24, 2012, at her home in Niantic after a long period of declining health. She had proudly reached the age of 100.

Marie Agnes Schluter was born Oct. 6, 1911 in Richmond Hill, New York, the third child of John Jacob and Mary (Gannon) Schluter. She served as registrar of St. John's University Law School and Long Island University, where she also taught business math and writing. She graduated from St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1933 and earned a master's degree from New York University. Upon graduation in the middle of the Depression, she worked for the management of Gimbels and Saks Fifth Avenue department stores.

Marie was deeply devoted to family. Although she never married she was the matriarch of the clan to her nieces, nephews and younger cousins.

A century is a long time to gather memories. Marie remembered the Armistice ending World War I and the influenza epidemic that year that nearly killed her mother. She listened to Charles Lindbergh after his trans-Atlantic flight and 70 years later could remember the thrill of hearing him say, "When I landed at Le Bourget..."

She recalled walking on Broadway when FDR went by in a limousine, and Marie, who didn't like his politics, was nevertheless overwhelmed by his magnetism. She traveled to Ireland for 39 summers; to Australia and New Zealand by freighter, to Egypt and the Holy Land, and many, many times to Europe. On many of those trips she had a sister or a niece in tow. Meanwhile she was knitting Aran sweaters or doing the Times crossword in ink.

Marie was a true New Yorker. The family moved to Brooklyn when she was a young child, and she was so proud to be from Brooklyn that she corrected Pope Pius XII during a papal audience in 1950 when he asked her where she was from. The pope, hearing "Brooklyn," said, "That's near New York, isn't it?" No, she told him, "It's in New York. It's the biggest part of New York."

But although she had great stories to tell, Marie was always a person of the present. A lovely writer, a brainy mathematician and determined in everything she did, she treated retirement as a time to serve her community and most of all her church. She was the president of the East Lyme Senior Citizens and a devoted volunteer at St. Agnes Parish. She helped found Mary's Ministry, a group that visits the sick; served as a Eucharistic minister; taught Confirmation classes and religious instruction for adults; and served as parish coordinator for the annual diocesan appeal.

It is impossible to think of Marie without thinking of her Catholic faith. The parishioners of St. Agnes were so accustomed to seeing her at daily Mass that when she could no longer drive a loyal group of friends formed a group that took turns picking her up every morning. Since 2005 she has resided at Crescent Point at Niantic. She cherished her caregivers there.

Besides her parents, Marie was predeceased by her brother, John P. Schluter; and her sisters, Marguerite Schluter, Carol (Schluter) Dowd, and Rosemary Schluter, who died in infancy.

Surviving are her beloved nieces and nephews and their families: Donald Schluter and his wife, Theresa, Carolyn (Schluter) Spero and her husband, Joseph, Doris M. Schluter, Lois (Schluter) Long and her husband, Jim, Mary Elizabeth "Lisa" (Dowd) McGinley and her husband, Morgan, Donna (Dowd) Cullen and her husband, Thomas, Bernard J. Dowd and his wife, Joan, Gregory R. Dowd and his wife, Gemma, Kevin J. Dowd, and Thomas A. Dowd and his wife, Ermine.

Calling hours will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, at the Thomas L. Neilan & Sons East Lyme Funeral Home, 48 Grand St., Niantic. The funeral procession will gather at 9 a.m. Friday, at Neilan & Sons, with a Mass of Christian Burial beginning at 10 a.m. Friday, at St. Agnes Church, Haigh Ave., Niantic.

In lieu of flowers, friends may make a donation to the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Connecticut, 403 North Frontage Road, Waterford, CT 06385; or to Haitian Health Foundation, 97 Sherman St., Norwich, CT 06360.

Please visit www.neilanfuneralhome.com to leave a condolence message on Marie's memorial page.