Mary Ann Morgareidge

Dr. Mary Ann Morgareidge, native of Decatur, Georgia, died August 22, 2018, after a long illness. The daughter of Eleanor Hogg Morgareidge and Charles Fredrick Morgareidge, she was born May 17, 1935. She attended Decatur’s Girls High. Except for her four years at the University of Georgia, where she earned a B.S. degree in Elementary Education and served as President of the Alpha Rho Chapter of the Delta Delta Delta sorority, and her summers spent first as a camper and later as a staff member and then, from 1959 – 1970, as Director at the Campfire Girls legendary Camp Toccoa -- Mary Ann lived her life in Decatur, a community cherished. Georgia State University awarded her both an M. Ed in Education Counseling and a Ph. D. in Educational Leadership. Mary Ann saw camping and education as vehicles to shape young lives and committed her strong passion and intelligence into that mission. She began her career as a teacher and Coordinator of Vocational Counselors CETA. She next served on the Atlanta Council of Campfire Girls. She completed her career as a counselor at DeKalb College and then as Dean of Students on the Clarkston Campus of DeKalb College from 1986 – 1996.

In her years at the college, Mary Ann was revered by her colleagues for her commitment to fairness and learning inside and out of the classroom and for her strength in standing up for high principles. Dr. Marvin Cole, President of DeKalb College during most of Mary Ann’s years there, recalls that it was a joy to “work alongside such a fine example of humanity.” She was adored by each year’s members of student government whom she mentored and stretched to become stronger leaders and deeper thinkers. Learning of her death, Dr. Bill Crews, Vice President for Student Affairs during Mary Ann’s years as Dean, commented that “if ever there was a champion for students, it was Mary Ann.” She always maintained her character was formed primarily by her father, who taught her to do the impossible – or what she thought was impossible until she tried, and by Miss Margaret Eakes, her Decatur Girls High teacher who showed her by example how to live life with courage.

Mary Ann was much more than her career; her friends considered her a modern-day Renaissance woman. Her home was filled with beautiful books: she was an inveterate reader of books on art, history, gardens, and whatever captured her imagination. With her beloved friend and longtime companion Bill Breen, she shared a love of architecture and Decatur history. With her friend from Camp Toccoa days, the late Leonie Hardie, she owned an exquisite Neoclassical home designed for his own family by Wm. J. Sayward, the architect who designed many buildings on the nearby Agnes Scott College and Columbia Seminary campuses as well as Atlanta’s University and Techwood Homes. Mary Ann was most proud of the bookcases in her living room that were built for Mrs. Sayward, another book lover, to serve as Decatur’s first public library. Mary Ann and Leonie, both avid gardeners, designed and maintained a classical landscape that complemented their house: boxwoods, slate paths, a little pond, and a tool shed disguised as a tiny folly. Mike Anderson, gardener and longtime friend from Mary Ann’s early days at DeKalb College, has maintained the hedges and green spaces for decades. Mary Ann was a member of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She served on the Decatur Historic Preservation Commission and was a member of the Board of Directors of the DeKalb Historical Society. Mary Ann spearheaded the 1993 effort to obtain National Historic Register status for her neighborhood. The South Candler Street / Agnes Scott College National Historic District became the first such district in the City of Decatur.

Mary Ann’s friendship was steadfast. She always remembered birthdays and relished treating friends to lunch at Café Lily and Petit Auberge. She was a regular for dinner at Athens Pizza. Mary Ann became her housemate Leonie’s faithful primary caregiver in the hard years when Leonie was struggling with terminal cancer, spending weeks with her at A.D. Anderson Cancer Clinic and Piedmont Hospital. Mary Ann leaves behind her loving friend, Bill Breen and his family, lifelong friends, and a legion of campers and students whose lives she graced.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts can go to Campfire Georgia, 92 Camp Toccoa Drive, Toccoa, GA 30577.

Graveside service will be at 10:00 on Monday, August 27, at the Decatur Cemetery, the Rev. Todd Speed officiating. A.S. Turner & Sons.