VALERIE HATHAWAY TEW

1920 - 2013

TEW, Valerie Hathaway Of Fox Hill Village, passed away peacefully on December 28, 2013, at age 93. Val led an active life, driven by curiosity and a sense of adventure that included summer cruises on the New England coast with her family and several trips to Europe with her husband and friends. Born on September 14, 1920, she grew up in Rye, New York, the daughter of Helen and Stewart Hathaway. She attended Miss Halls School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and graduated from Vassar College in 1942. She married Lt. John B. Tew a month later in Vero Beach, Florida, where they had met. Following Johns service in World War II, the couple settled in Lincoln, Massachusetts, where they raised their five children. John worked as a portfolio manager at Scudder, Stevens & Clark in Boston, ultimately becoming a partner in the firm. The family enjoyed skiing with friends at Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire, spring visits to Vero Beach, Florida, and summers in Osterville, Massachusetts. As their children grew, married, and had their own children, generations would return for weeks together in Osterville. Val and John enjoyed playing golf together and were mixed pair champions at both the Wianno Club in Osterville and the Concord Country Club in Concord, Massachusetts. Val took particular pride in growing flowers and creating flower arrangements for St. Annes-in-the-Field Church in Lincoln and for Bostons Museum of Fine Arts, of which she was a member. Just as she loved to grow her own, she was an inveterate roadside wildflower picker, sometime cottage rose pruner/thief and rescuer of bulldozed day lilies. In 1976, after his retirement, John and Val built a retirement home in Osterville. On a sailing trip in 1982 John had a stroke, and Val devoted herself to his care with love and humor until his death twelve years later. Val remained in Osterville, where she enjoyed visits from her children and grandchildren. Keeping up with local issues and being a devoted reader of books and newspapers, she was a consummate conversationalist and avid correspondent. To relax and reflect, she loved to take her morning coffee and the newspaper to Dowses Beach overlooking Nantucket Sound, where she and John had spent so much time together. Val started living part-time at Fox Hill Village, a retirement community in Westwood, Massachusetts, in 2002, splitting her time between Westwood and Osterville. Vals interest in new places never waned. At age 80 she joined her four former Vassar roommates on a trip to southern France, where they spent two weeks in a villa, enjoying day trips with Val as the designated driver. At age 87, she and some of her children drove around northern California, seeing the vineyards, redwoods and coastline, and flying silently past Mount Shasta in her first hot air balloon ride. Val is survived by her five children: James Tew (Junie), Hathaway Brewster (Galen), David Tew (Margaret), John Tew, and Laurie Tew (Judy Bernstein), ten grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. The family would like to express its deepest thanks to the staff at Clark House Nursing Center at Fox Hill Village for their loving care in Vals final days. A memorial service will be held in the summer at St. Peters Episcopal Church in Osterville. Donations in Valerie Tews memory may be sent to St. Peters Episcopal Church, 421 Wianno Ave., Osterville, MA 02655.