Mary Ellen – A Woman of Many Dimensions

We often talk about the woman behind the man. In Marty’s case, Mary Ellen is that, and much more. After 45 years of marriage, Marty says that most women would not do what Mary Ellen has done for him. But Mary Ellen has not just been a pillar for Marty, she has accomplished and experienced a great deal in her own life. If she would choose to, Mary Ellen could author her own impressive memoir. 

 We had a lovely visit with the couple recently near the gazebo on the tennis court at their home. Mary Ellen is Marty’s everything, managing doctor appointments, prescriptions, shopping, scheduling, and doing everything it takes to keep Marty going at 93—quite an accomplishment for both of them given Marty’s amyloidosis, a disease for which there is no cure. During our visit Marty encouraged Mary Ellen to tell us more about her own life. She doesn’t seek attention, but we did learn a little more of her life story.

 We had known that Mary Ellen was a surgical technician and worked in Labor and Delivery at the Princeton Medical Center for 24 years. She also spent seven years in OB/GYN at the Princeton Medical Group. We didn’t know that prior to that, she was the manager of Voices, a local professional chorale group. (Music, it turns out, is one of her passions.) At the time, Marty was working at the tennis center with no health insurance, so on the recommendation of her sister, Martha, she trained for the job and started on this new path to get health insurance for her family.

 Mary Ellen is also an athlete. She began playing tennis at age 8 and played competitively in Middle States tournaments and nationals—yet she considers basketball her best sport. Her great uncle, Trenton legend Fritz Kuser, provided some tennis opportunities for her, and she played at the boarding school she attended in Massachusetts. When the school closed down, they sent her the Perpetual Tennis Trophy. She later taught tennis in Pennington in the summers and worked in the tennis industry for PDP and Prince. Tennis is what brought Marty and Mary Ellen together. They first met as members of the Parkview Tennis Club. Marty was driving to Atlantic City for a Middle States tournament and was asked to give a young tennis player a ride. That player turned out to be Mary Ellen Hirst. She’s also proud of her Sportsmanship Trophy from that tournament. Fourteen years later, they married.

 Well before marriage, Mary Ellen attended college in Switzerland, where she studied liberal arts and took the opportunity to travel to places such as Tehran, London, and Budapest. She calls this her “hippie time,” and worked as a barista in Lugano, Switzerland, for a time after college, while racking up an amazing array of experiences, during college, in Europe after college, and on returning to the U.S. Mary Ellen sang twice at Carnegie Hall with the Opera Orchestra of New York as a member of Princeton Pro Musica and with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra as a member of the Westminster Summer Choir. Along with her children Tara and Kyle, Mary Ellen was a member of the Pennington Players and the three were in plays together at the Washington Crossing Open Air Theater. She has her motorcycle license. (She also had her own van around the time Marty had his.) She went static line sky jumping. Oh, and she was also a rower for four Christmas re-enactments of Washington Crossing the Delaware. And she continued to seek out opportunities to travel abroad, extending those opportunities to her own children and grandchildren. There is no end to Mary Ellen’s activities and accomplishments. 

 Mary Ellen is also a crack researcher. She has done extensive work in genealogy (with over 30,000 people on her family tree), family history, and local history and was, by the way, incredibly helpful in tracking down difficult-to-find information and references for Marty’s book (which she says she still hasn’t read!). She’s a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

 This newsletter just scratches the surface of Mary Ellen’s life. She has some wonderful memories, many with her sister Martha, whom she remains close to, and others with Marty. She also recalls some close-call experiences that could have ended her life.

Once, a Mack stone truck went through a red light and her car went spinning in the air. She thought she was on her way to heaven. Another time, she experienced a near miss in a small plane over Yuma, AZ, while on their way to a tennis tournament in CA. And she twice survived cancer.

Marty feels so blessed to have her and is glad she survived those almost life-ending experiences. Now, in addition to looking after Marty, she enjoys time with their daughter Tara, their son Kyle, and their many grandchildren.

Ann LoPrinzi and Cathy Kreyche