Mary Laurette Murdock Thompson of Wellesley died on November 10, at Mary Ann Morse (rehabilitation center) in Natick.
Her hundredth year was passed comfortably at Heritage (assisted living facility) of Framingham. She had many friends there, along with friends and former students who kept in touch in Wellesley.
Mary Thompson grew up at Harvard University, where her father, Kenneth Murdock, was a dean and house master. After college at Vassar she married Cameron Thompson and they moved to two boarding schools, the second of which was Phillips Exeter Academy, in New Hampshire. Her husband then became a teacher at Pine Manor, first in Wellesley (a junior college on the campus of Dana Hall until 1964), and then at Pine Manor’s new campus in Chestnut Hill, Newton. The Thompsons remained until 1977 in Wellesley, where they raised three children.
Mary obtained an M.A. degree during this time and started teaching in the Special Education department at Wellesley High School. This was her career until 1982, and she was beloved by students and colleagues for her patience, insight and good humor.
Her lifelong gift was humor and the elegant craft of words.
This period encompassed her important contributions to the book Philosophy and Literature; her husband’s retirement; and their move to South Natick. There she was active in the Natick Historical Society, the Shakespeare Club, and the Eliot Church. At the latter she was a deacon and diligent committee member. She continued on in South Natick after her husband’s death in 1989, finally moving back to Wellesley in 2001, where she participated in that town’s German Club, along with a book club.
Mary’s heart was always drawn to the members of her family, no matter how distant, to language and its riches, to many charities, and to New Hampshire where the old Murdock place was her summer home. She also felt the pull of her birthplace, Boston, where her mother, Laurette Potts Murdock, lived until 1994.
She leaves her children, Gordon, Peter and Sarah, and her grandchild Cawley. Her passing was peaceful, surrounded by family.
Services will be private; gifts in memoriam may be sent to Habitat for Humanity.
Let the Wellesley community know of your remembrances at theswellesleyreport@gmail.com
