Martha Stibitz Banerjee

In loving memory of Martha Stibitz Banerjee, born Martha Amelia Stibitz in Boonton NJ, July 3, 1937 to George Robert Stibitz and Dorothea Lamson Stibitz. The Stibitz family lived in Morristown, NJ until the end of WWII when they moved to Burlington VT. Martha attended Burlington High School and graduated in 1955. She then went to Kalamazoo College majoring in Fine Art. She took oil painting and sculpture. Looking to turn her degree into a career, she found interest in helping people to adjust after injury pulling from her own experience from becoming ambidextrous after breaking her arm as a child. She enrolled in Occupational Therapy training at Tufts University, and then worked as an OT at Bird S Coler Hospital on Rosevelt Island for 9 years, during which she would meet her future husband Sikhar Banerjee. He was in residency at the same hospital training to become a physiatrist. She then went back to school to study Prosthetics and Orthotics at NYU using her skills in human sculpture alongside her love for mechanics passed to her by her father. She was married in Andover NH in 1967, and moved to Hamilton Ontario, Canada. They both worked at Chedoke Hospital, and their daughter Monica was born. They moved to Jerseyville, Ontario where they had a small farm with many animals until 1994, when they moved to Hanover NH to care for her parents. They then settled in New London, NH where they had built a retirement home on Pleasant Lake on her family property where she had summered as a child. She loved her life at the lake, swimming, painting and being close to her mother's family. She adored animals especially horses. She was loved by her friends and family for her unique humor and big heart.

She died at the place she loved after a long battle with Alzheimer's, cared for by her daughter and husband. She is predeceased by her parents, George and Dotty Stibitz, her sister Mary Pacifici and her brother in-law Leon Pacifici. She is greatly missed by her husband and daughter for her mere presence and everything she did for them. There is a hole left in their family that will never be filled.