Margaret Iona "Maggie" Maher

1963 - 2024

News Story
By Mike Sigov
Blade Staff Writer

Margaret "Maggie" Iona Maher, minister of youth and Christian education at Park Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, died Jan. 1 at Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center. She was 60.

The Lake Township resident apparently suffered a heart attack after a bout with pneumonia, said her husband of 32 years, Jim Maher.

"She was like a guiding light to everybody she came in contact with but especially to all the children, whom she all called her kids," Mr. Maher said, noting that she often spent her own money on food, clothing, and shoes for needy children and families.

"She was one of the most caring, considerate, giving persons that I've ever met," he said. "…Her mantra was 'God first, others second, and I'm third.'"

Mrs. Maher ministered at Park from 2003, when she accepted the position, until her death. She had used a wheelchair since 2007, when a car accident left her quadriplegic.

"I really would rather be defined by how I live my life and what I do with the kids, and the passion I feel for what I feel God has called me to do" than being known as a quadriplegic, Mrs. Maher told The Blade in 2016.

She was "pretty much paralyzed from the chest down" and had only limited dexterity, she told The Blade at the time.

Her goal was service.

"I don't do what I do for the money," she said. "I never have. You don't get rich being any kind of youth worker. I do it because I love God; I love the kids. I am so so grateful that I have the ability to continue to use my God-given gifts, and I'll do it until God tells me there's a different direction I need to go in."

Mrs. Maher said in that interview that her husband questioned the sanity of spending "a night at the church with a big group of kids, get no sleep, and eat tons of pizza," but she saw it as "working with young people, showing them possibilities."

She was motivated in part by her own "pretty negative experiences as a teen with religion in terms of really having it stuffed down my throat," which led her to question its validity - questions with which she suspected many people of faith struggle at some point in their lives.

"In any of my conversations with kids or teens, I hope I never made them feel like they had to believe one thing or another," she told The Blade. "Some kids believe; some kids don't believe; some kids aren't sure what they believe - they're on the fence. Everybody's welcome here."

Quadriplegia hadn't diminished Mrs. Maher's belief in connecting with the Park children, Park's pastor at that time, the Rev. Ed Heilman told The Blade.

"One of the beautiful things to see is that it's like the chair has disappeared," Pastor Heilman told Mrs. Maher at the time. "When the youth are with you, they see you, they love you, you love them, and it's just - [the wheelchair] is part of it, it's there, but it's just not [an obstacle]. It's such a great education for them."

Before Park Church, Mrs. Maher worked for about 28 at YMCA facilities in Ohio and Michigan, at different times as programs director and as executive director, the job she had in the 1990s at the University of Toledo's YMCA programs office.

Born Nov. 23, 1963 to Janet and Eugene Werstler in Toledo, she graduated valedictorian in 1981 from Macomber Whitney High School.

She then got a job with the YMCA as a camp counselor at a Storer Camp in Napoleon, Mich., and later at Camp Kimball, near Reading, Mich., where she met Jim Maher, at the time her instructor in an emergency medical technicians class. She later volunteered as an emergency medical technician for a couple of years in the Reading area.

In her free time, Mrs. Maher enjoyed reading biographical novels and growing flowers.

She was preceded in death by her sisters, Sheila Werstler and Lynette Busch.

Along with her husband, Jim Maher, she is survived by her brother, Michael Werstler Sr., and sister, Martha Grabarkiewicz.

Visitation will be from 4 to 9 p.m. Monday at Freck Funeral Chapel, Oregon. A celebration of life ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. Jan. 20 at Park Church.

The family suggests tributes to the church.