Mary Sue "Petey" Giroux

News Obituary Article

KENNESAW: Mary Sue 'Petey' Giroux, 63, educator

By MICHELLE HISKEY

After Mary Sue "Petey" Martin Giroux found out she had pancreatic cancer in September, her last 10 months shone through the prism of her creativity and passion for the earth and its people.

On Halloween, the award-winning environmental educator dressed up as Xena, the Warrior Princess, to battle a disease that she referred to, as Harry Potter might, "The 'c' that shall not be named."

In March, the Environmental Education Alliance of Georgia gave her the Eugene Odom Lifetime Achievement Award for her work creating and sharing innovative teaching strategies.

In the spring, 45 friends joined her for a mountain weekend, each bedecked with a hat from her. From Viking helmets to pirate hats, everyone remained in character, said her daughter Courtenay Giroux Wilson of Roswell.

The gathering fit the woman nicknamed for the boy who never wanted to grow up. Her birth name, Mary Martin, was shared by the Broadway actress in the title role in "Peter Pan." "Petey" fit perfectly because of her dramatic bent, Ms. Wilson said.

"Her big thing was she never wanted to grow up, and we put those words on her cremation box," Ms. Wilson said. On her deathbed, her daughter said, "I told her to go on and fly, that she would come back as a dragonfly, resembling Tinker Bell."

Ms. Giroux, 63, of Kennesaw died July 30 at Ms. Wilson's home. The body was cremated.

A memorial service is scheduled Oct. 25 at a friend's farm in Lithonia, under the moonlight, said her daughter Lynne Merkle of Bedford, N.H. Performers will include Ms. Giroux's African drumming circle, her Twilight Twirlers (majorettes at least 45 years old) and a jazz band.

Ms. Giroux loved the outdoors since her childhood but was haunted by a nightmare that a bear was chasing her, said her sister, Meredith Martin of Centerburg, Ohio.

At 60, Ms. Giroux confronted that fear with a two-week wilderness survival trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness near the Canadian border. The trip helped her earn a master's in outdoor education.

"In her journal from that trip, she was constantly looking for bears and wrote about how proud she was," her sister said. "She really faced some of her greatest fears and was happy."

Born to a family of teachers, Ms. Giroux earned an education degree from Ohio State University and found her niche in the ecology movement of the '70s. Even though she didn't teach science, she wove earth-friendly teaching into her curricula.

Her reputation grew statewide as she helped establish the Chattahoochee River Environmental Education Center and directed the Parks as Classroom program for the National Park Service.

Ms. Giroux was the Georgia PTA's first environmental chair, and spent more than 11 years at the Environmental Protection Division of the state Department of Natural Resources, most recently as an environmental education coordinator. She popularized a national poetry contest called "River of Words" that Georgia students went on to win.

"Petey made an enormous mark on our agency, by being the face of where we were going," said Deron Davis, who directs the EPD's Water Smart program.

Ms. Giroux summed up her life philosophy when her daughter, Ms. Merkle, asked her for career advice: "It's finding the path that allows you to give the best of yourself to others and the earth, and sharing your time and talents with others in a way that makes positive change. It's love."

Other survivors include a stepdaughter, Dana Ross of Dacula; and four grandchildren.

© 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution