Marilyn Hope "Kirsch" Bruschi

Marilyn Hope Bruschi

Passed away peacefully at her home in Fox Chapel on July 6, 2025 with her family at her side.

Marilyn was born to Edna and David Kirsch on May 3, 1941 in Jersey City, NJ. She grew up in South Orange, N. J. where she met her husband Howard in Latin class when she was 15 years old, and married ten years later to the delight and relief of her parents. After high school, she graduated from Skidmore College and then graduate school at The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, majoring in Medieval French sculpture and architecture. She then married and moved to Pittsburgh where her husband was working for Westinghouse Electric Corporation in their Nuclear Energy Group.

Marilyn is survived by her husband, Howard, their two children, John who lives in Lafayette, CA with his sons Martin and Zane, and Jill Hunter (Eric) who lives in McCandless with their two children Steven and Tatum. In addition, she is survived by her brother Owen (Carol) Kirsch and brothers in-law Donald (Maureen) Bruschi and Francis Costenbader as well as many nieces and nephews. Marilyn also had a sister, Wendy Kirsch now deceased.

Marilyn and Howard, her husband of 59 years, traveled the continents to engage in and enjoy the cultures and cuisine of other countries. At home, she thoroughly enjoyed preparing meals and in fact insisted that Howard stay out of the kitchen. Marilyn liked dining with friends either at a restaurant or to host them in her home.

Marilyn was an energetic businesswoman, active in Pittsburgh non-profit organizations and a dynamic member of the Garden Club of Allegheny County. In 1979, she started an interior design business called Merry B interior design along with an antique print and painting gallery which also featured contemporary art. In 1982, her gallery was the first to exhibit Romare Beardon in Pittsburgh. Though concentrating mainly on residential and some commercial work, one highlight was working on the restoration of Clayton, the former home of the Henry Clay Frick family, before its initial opening as a museum. She restored Mrs. Frick's and the childrens' bedrooms and eventually redid the Music room and parts of Mr. Frick's study. Later, she also opened a home decor business in the Waterworks called Decorator Fabrics.

During her forty years in business, Marilyn involved herself in non-profit work through ASID (American Society of Interior Design) community projects - creating a bedroom for AIDS patients in a Lincoln Larimer area hospice, a bedroom in a woman's shelter and taking part in the March of Dimes Galas for three years. For the latter, she designed giant fanciful display rooms for executives to display their putative cooking skills.

In 1998, she was appointed to the board of Pittsburgh Opera when becoming President of the Guild Council, the overseeing body of one of the Opera's two volunteer agencies. The Pittsburgh Opera Board of Directors recently honored her by electing her Director Emerita. Other board memberships included the Twentieth Century Club, American Historical Print Collectors Society (for which in 2010 she led a national group of curators, librarians, collectors, gallerists and scholars around Pittsburgh showing off the glories of its architecture, print archives and art museums), ARCS or Achievement Rewards for College Scientists, and Garden Club of Allegheny County (GCAC).

The most revelatory moment which changed her life not only as a gardener (her garden is listed in the Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens), but also as a person, occurred on November, 2011 when she attended a GCAC membership meeting hosting the speaker Dr. Douglas Tallamy, Professor of Entomology at the University of Delaware. He proposed, as delineated in his book " Bringing Nature Home" that landowners need to install native plants on their properties in order to restore and preserve ecosystems that nourish our native insects and ultimately support all animals, including humans. He underscored the importance of native plants to maintain and ensure a healthy balance in the nature of our ecosystems.

Inspired by Dr. Tallamy, in 2012, she and a GCAC friend, Sally Foster, created the Native Plant Initiative (NPI) of GCAC to promote Tallamy's message by hosting garden seminars featuring nationally known garden designers free and open to the public. Along with this, Marilyn rolled up her sleeves to get her hands figuratively and literally dirty by leading an NPI group in adopting Point State Park as a growing season project to weed out invasive and exotic plants and replace them with natives. Her passion led her to inspire others to reach out as a volunteer and to start adding Western Pennsylvania native plants to their landscape. She also motivated others to ask local nurseries to supply native plants that haven't been so hybridized and doctored that they can no longer function properly within their original ecosystem. Through her determination and actions, Marilyn's fervent wish was to leave a mark in caring for our ecosystems and inspiring others to do so too. Sherry Mendelson, a close friend, said, "Marilyn was one of the most remarkable people I have ever known. Everything about her was extraordinary."

In lieu of flowers, Marilyn and her family respectfully suggest memorial contributions to the Pittsburgh Opera and organizations dedicated to protecting our ecosystems such as the Audubon at Beechwood Farms, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.

A memorial event honoring Marilyn's life is planned for the near future.

Arrangements by Weddell-Ajak Funeral Home, Aspinwall.