Mary Stipe Eyles

Mary Stipe Eyles died on Monday, August 29, 2005, beloved by many. Mary was born Mary Steed Stipe on March 7, 1917 in Oxford, Georgia, the third child of John Gordon Stipe and Annie Zuleika Dillard.  Her father was at that time a professor of Spanish at Emory College.  The family moved to Atlanta in 1919 after Emory University was established in its present location.  At Emory her father served successively as Registrar, Dean of Admissions, and finally Vice President and Dean of Faculty  Mary recalled cups of warm milk straight from the cow they kept at their house on Clifton Road, her father setting traps for rabbits nearby, reading Louisa May Alcott by a stream that ran through what is now Druid Hills High School, and the premier of ?Gone With the Wind?.  Mary attended Agnes Scott College and then transferred to Emory, one of the first women admitted there.  At Emory she met her future husband Don E. Eyles in the office of biology professor Woolford Baker.  They shared a passion for natural science and were married on June 17, 1941.  Don became a commissioned officer in the US Public Health Service.  While heading a laboratory in Memphis, Tennessee he serendipitously discovered that contrary to accepted opinion a human could get ?monkey malaria?.  The discovery led to an assignment to study malaria transmission under natural conditions in Malaya.  Malaya was Mary?s greatest adventure. There were three children by now, a dog named Benny, a pet gibbon named Wah Two, and geckos crawling on the walls.  There were expeditions in jeeps to take blood smears of people living deep in the jungle, and side trips to Cambodia and Singapore  Her husband Don died in 1963.  Mary returned to Atlanta and started a new life as a science teacher at Druid Hills High School ? where she herself had graduated in 1934.  At Druid Hills Mary became a legend.  She felt that in the modern world a person needed to know biology to be a good citizen. She knew how to pique her students? interest.  She took them on field trips, and invited them to her house for ?brains and eggs?.  When they studied fungi, she brought blue cheese and crackers.  In 1971 she was honored as the best biology teacher in Georgia? (Atlanta Journal, May 26, 1971).  For years the living room of her house near the high school was the scene of nightly gatherings of her students and former students, often into the wee hours.  ?I may have taught more in my living room than in my classroom? she said.  Many of her students credit her as a major influence on their lives, and have kept in close contact ever since.  She has been proud of them as well.  Mary Eyles is survived by her three children: Don E. Eyles Jr. of Boston, Massachusetts; Mary Anne McGarraugh of Scotts Valley, California; John G. Eyles of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and two grandchildren Patrick and Kathleen McGarraugh.  Several years ago Mary Eyles wrote and published her memoirs under the title ?I?ve Been Writing a Book Since I was Ten Years Old?.  A Memorial Celebration will be held at Cannon Chapel, Emory University, at 1:30 PM on Monday September 5.  Burial will be at Arlington National Cemetery.