Tupper Webster

1923 - 2017

Tupper Dooly Webster enriched thousands of lives through education, community and family before she died peacefully in her sleep April 27, 2017, in Concord, Massachusetts, at age 93. A legacy of nurturing each individual's curiosity, dignity and love will continue rippling out through those Tupper touched. They are many. She had a knack for making close connections with people she met of any age, from any walk of life, drawing them out with sincere interest in their lives, struggles and growth. Tupper taught early childhood education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, from the 1970s to the 1990s. She shared with new preschool teachers knowledge that she had gained at Merrill Palmer Institute, Detroit, in the 1940s, University of Maryland in the 1960s, and first-hand in the preschools of the renowned Merrill Palmer Child Development Laboratory in Detroit, the Ruggles Street Nursery School and Training Center in Boston, the ARC of Montgomery County (Maryland), and elsewhere. She emphasized the importance of creative play in developing children's understanding and enjoyment of our world. She was an expert in blocks. For the U.S. Department of Education, she worked in Vermont, Guam and Micronesia as a consultant to strengthen Head Start programs in many communities. Mary Tupper Dooly was born Dec. 12, 1923, in Atlanta, Georgia, first child of Louise Youngblood Dooly and Weyman Isaac Dooly. She spent one high-school year back in Atlanta living with her grandmother Mary Tupper Hohenstein, but she grew up mostly in Conasauga, Tennessee. Her father ran the Conasauga River Lumber Co. in that small town near the state's southeast corner. Her mother instilled enjoyment of storytelling and songs. Tupper gained lifelong appreciation for forests, rivers and uses for scrap lumber. Before she was 20, the family grew by seven beloved younger siblings who provided early lessons in child development. Tupper graduated from Polk County High School in nearby Benton in 1941. She next earned a bachelor's degree in home economics at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she was a Torchbearer, the highest honor the university gives its students. During her UT years, she won a fellowship from the Danforth Foundation that led to a St. Louis visit, a national network of similarly honored young women, and leadership experience at the American Youth Foundation's Camp Minnewanka in Michigan. Tupper met medical student Thomas G. Webster while she was at Merrill Palmer in Detroit. They married on June 27, 1948. By 1953, after two years in California and two in South Dakota, they moved to the Boston area for the first time with one daughter and two sons. Tupper's energy focused on her own children in Dedham and Newton for the next decade, and in Bethesda, Maryland, beginning in 1963, before she earned her master's degree at University of Maryland. Following their retirements, Tupper and Tom moved back to Massachusetts to be near children and grandchildren. They settled in West Concord in 2008, where she quickly became active in community organizations such as Plymouth Congregational Church in Belmont, the board of the Friends of the Concord Council on Aging, and the "Seekers and Sages" program at Concord Academy. Friends at the Council on Aging, the church and Concord Greene, along with family, shared happiness with her in the years before and after her husband's death in 2009. Her life is celebrated by surviving siblings Noble Clark, Rosalind Tovar, Weyman Dooly, Sally Newman and Philip Dooly; daughter Warnie; sons Guy and David; son-in-law Jim Daly; daughters-in-law Katherine Webster and Lynn Dyer; grandchildren Caroline Webster Thordarson and Stephen Webster, and Carrie's husband, Paul Thordarson; many nieces, nephews, in-laws and other relatives; former students and colleagues; and friends in many places. Two events to celebrate the life of Tupper Webster are planned for late May. A service at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 27, will be at Plymouth Congregational Church, 582 Pleasant St., Belmont, MA 02478. An open house from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 31, will be at the Concord Council on Aging's Harvey Wheeler Community Center, 1276 Main St., Concord, MA 01742. Contributions in lieu of flowers may be made to Plymouth Congregational Church or a charity of the donor's choice in the spirit of Tupper's generosity. Arrangements are under the care of Susan M. Dee and Charles W. Dee Jr., Dee Funeral Home of Concord. To share a remembrance or to send a condolence in Tuppers online guestbook, please visit www. deefuneralhome.com.