MARCIA FOLSOM

FOLSOM, Marcia (McClintock) A literary scholar, writer and gifted college teacher for more than 50 years, died on April 16, 2025, at her home in Boston's South End, after a brief illness. She was 84. Marcia lived a life defined by love and generosity, intellect and accomplishment, leaving a legacy of kindness that touched countless lives. Her warm heart and giving nature brightened the world, and she will be deeply missed. She took great pleasure in spending time with her sons and their families, traveling with her sisters and visiting with friends and neighbors in the South End and Bethel, Vermont. Marcia Lynn McClintock was born in 1940 in Evanston, Illinois and attended the University School in Columbus, Ohio, where she spent most of her childhood, before going to Wellesley College, where she studied English literature, graduating in 1962. She earned her Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley in 1976, choosing Berkeley because it seemed to her the most intellectually exciting place in the country and was at the leading edge of the political and cultural ferment of the 1960s. While at Berkeley, she met her future husband, Michael Brewster Folsom, a fellow graduate student in American literature, with whom she shared passions for both intellectual life and progressive politics. They were active in protests against the Vietnam War and in support of the Women's Rights, Free Speech and Civil Rights Movements. Marcia's doctoral dissertation was a feminist study of the depiction of women in Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene," and she continued to write on feminist themes when she and her husband moved to Boston to take their first teaching positions, Mike at MIT and Marcia at Boston College. With Linda Heinlein Kirschner, she edited, "By Women, An Anthology of Literature" in 1976. "The women represented in this book," they wrote in the introduction, "have made it easier for us to write and to be heard today. They have, in affirming their existences, validated ours as well." The project of validating women's voices was an enduring thread in her scholarly and teaching career. She taught at Wheelock College from 1969 until her retirement in 2017, earning tenure in 1981, and serving as Vice President for Academic Affairs there from 1993 to 1997. Her talent for teaching is remembered by generations of Wheelock students who took courses with her on Jane Austen, Western Civilization, The 19th Century Novel, the Renaissance and other topics. She was known for her kindness, command of the subject matter and her talent for inspiring students with her love and admiration of literature. The idea of Renaissance was a recurring theme in her teaching and scholarship. Moments of creative effervescence - as in classical Greece, late Medieval Italy, 19th century Massachusetts and 1920's Harlem - fascinated her. Following Mike's death in 1990, Marcia honored his legacy by serving on the board of directors of The Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation, which he founded in 1980 and which remains a vibrant cultural institution in Waltham, Massachusetts. Marcia was also deeply committed to her neighborhood. She and Mike moved into the South End of Boston in 1968, purchasing a Victorian brick row house, which they transformed over many years into the elegant and comfortable home she loved and lived in for the rest of her life. With her friend and neighbor, Nate Smith, she transformed the empty lot between their two homes into a serene and beautiful public park. The verdant, uplifting space is open to all - a lasting gift to the neighborhood she loved. She is survived by her two sisters, Carolyn McClintock Peter and Abbie McClintock Crane; two sons, Jamie McClintock Folsom and his wife, Beth Boucher, Raphael Brewster Folsom and his wife, Sandra Folsom; and three grandchildren, August Field Folsom, Lorenzo Brewster Folsom and Alejandro McClintock Folsom. A Memorial Service in celebration of Marcia's life will take place on June 14, 2025, at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation. In lieu of flowers, gifts can be made in Marcia's name to the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation, The Environmental Defense Fund, The Southern Poverty Law Center or to Rosie's Place, all of which Marcia supported for many years.