Mary Ellen Corey

Dr. Mary Ellen Corey, née Paddock, (1946-2025) died unexpectedly after a short illness on July 7, 2025, surrounded by her family. She had already embarked on her robust summer reading list — as she had done every summer since she was a child perched in the branches of a plum tree behind her parents’ home — when her health turned suddenly.

Mary was born to the late George and Domenica Paddock (Scaramuzzino) in Seneca Falls. She was inspired her whole life by its association with the suffragist and women’s rights movements. She graduated from Mynderse in 1964, where the faculty had tried to form, like many young women of her generation, a bookish and gifted student into a secretary; they succeeded briefly. After a varied business career ranging from legal secretary to bookstore manager, and the birth of two children, Mary embarked on a B.S. in history and English at SUNY Brockport, then a master’s in education and later a Ph.D. in American history at the University of Rochester.

The true expression of her life, being an educator, began in the late 80s as a social studies teacher at Dansville High School, where she also taught the A.P. American history course and served as President of the teachers’ union. In 2000 she joined the social studies and history education faculty of SUNY Brockport as an associate professor, from which she retired as professor emerita.

Inspired by a gap in the social studies curriculum that she identified through her years teaching teenagers, Mary brought her love of baseball to an overlooked topic. Her first book, Before Jackie: The Negro Leagues, Civil Rights, and the American Dream (PMP, 2013), is a workbook in multicultural studies for high school students. An innovator in teaching methodology, she next created a teacher’s edition to guide its classroom use. Her third book, The Political Life and Times of Matilda Joslyn Gage (PMP, 2019), explores her real scholarship and passion—the early women’s rights movement.

Although a very private person, Mary was active in many organizations throughout her life, from the GAA at Mynderse through presidency of the Livingston County Retired Teachers. She was a member of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the New York State Council for the Social Studies, the Organization of American Historians, a consultant to the College Board for the A.P. exam in U.S. History, served on the Board of Trustees of the Brockport Community Museum, regularly presented talks at area libraries and historical societies, and was a faithful member of the Bookcrossing Ladies’ Lunch Group.

Mary Corey loved (in no particular order): her quiet little house on the lake; various cats; books—recipes, poetry, travel, murder mysteries, bios, histories—books and books and books; chocolate in all its manifestations, coffee and maybe a donut; crossword puzzles; live theater; fuzzy socks; sports, especially baseball; Cape Cod and lighthouses; road trips; red; Christmas shopping and parties; transgressive humor; her life-long friends and her kids.

Mary is survived by her son David (Barbara) Corey, her daughter Meaghan (Mike) Cole and Mike’s daughter Emily Cole, sister Anne Kilgore (John Forester), friend and companion Gayle Stout, sister-in-law Mary Jane Corey, niece Andrea Zona and nephew Jeff Corey.

Family and friends are invited to gather for a memorial and celebration on Saturday, August 2, from 11 a.m. until 12:30 at Doran Funeral Home, 4 East Bayard Street, Seneca Falls, followed by interment in St. Columbkille Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations are requested to the library of your choice.