Mari Ann Blatch

Mystic - Mari Ann Rhodes Blatch, of Mystic, passed away in Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London Oct. 9, 2024, a few days short of her 83rd birthday. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, and was treated successfully at Sloane Kettering but the after effects sapped her health and finally she succumbed to multiple ailments.

She came from a small town in Iowa and emulated her great aunts by winning a scholarship to Vassar College. She earned a JD at Columbia Law School at a time when women lawyers were rare. Spurned as a woman by the New York law firms, she was hired by the chairman of Readers' Digest and served as vice president and director of Consumer and Government Affairs from 1974 to 1996. She was responsible for developing and implementing public policy planning for the U.S. Readers' Digest and its thirty international subsidiaries. She represented the Readers' Digest on the boards of many national and international trade associations including the International Advertising Association, the International Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Council for International Business. She was appointed by President Reagan to the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO and to the Advisory Panel on International Educational Exchange (Fulbright grants). She was appointed by the State Department under Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton as member of the U.S. Delegation to the OECD.

Taking early retirement in 1966, she embarked with her husband, Barnaby Blatch, on their 43-foot sailboat for a two-year voyage that took them across the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans, finally dropping anchor in Stonington. Using her formidable social skills, she had a second career for 20 years as a realtor with Pequot Properties & Berkshire Hathaway. She was an active member of the Cruising Club of America and the Ocean Cruising Club and was a founding member of the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club. She loved to sail and navigated Cloud Racer, their 38-foot sailboat to Maine and New England ports.

She is survived by her husband of 55 years; by her sisters-in law, Dianne Rhodes and Susan Carlyle; by her godson Alexander Innes; and by many nieces and nephews.

A Celebration of her Life will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, at the Mystic Congregational Church and afterwards at the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club.