Grew up in Harvard, known for her generosity, dedication, and wide-ranging curiosity
Marci Pieters. (Courtesy photo)
Marcia Reed “Marci” Pieters, 76, died last year after a brief struggle with acute leukemia at home with loving care in Littleton. She was the daughter of the late Edward “Ed” and Mary Pieters (Reed) of Harvard, and sister to Ned, Laura Cordy (Pieters), and Katharine. On June 26,1966, two years following the early death of her mother, she inherited a new family when Ed married the now late Diana Wool (Frost) of Waban, and became stepsister to Sylvia, Geoff, Margaret, Liz, and Adam. After Ed and Diana moved to Harvard they fostered Reuth Pheach, now Rudy Pieters—Marci’s 10th sibling.
Marci grew up in Harvard, interrupted briefly by two years in Greater St. Louis. In 1964 she completed secondary education at the Northfield School for Girls, and then attended Wheaton College in Norton, with the Sweet Briar junior year in France. She graduated from Wheaton in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in French.
During the next year Marci took graduate studies in French at the University of California, Davis, while teaching undergraduates, and then settled into full-time work as a librarian at the Brookline Public Library. In 1976 she extended her library skills working at the City of Seattle Print Shop, setting up a microfilm archive and later becoming senior bindery worker. And for 15 years she also enjoyed the natural beauty and culture of the northwest coast.
After returning to Harvard she attended Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner, graduating in 1992 with an associate degree in medical technology. Her aptitude, diligence, and keen attention to detail instead guided her toward a career in accounting, and, following several years of sampling local businesses, she finally found the most fulfilling niche at Assurance Technology Corporation, Carlisle.
Family, friends, and colleagues may remember Marci as kind, dedicated, quick-witted, hard-working, passionate about social matters, and, most of all, generous. An insatiable curiosity led her down the paths she took. It was fortunate that Marci lived such a long life. As a toddler she had rheumatic fever, but thanks to the recent availability of oral penicillin and to Dr. Paul Dudley White (later President Eisenhower’s cardiac physician), who was at his summer house in Harvard, she was quickly diagnosed and admitted to Children’s Hospital Boston.
Though Marci wanted no memorial service, may her entire family, close friends, and colleagues be inspired to remember her in their own ways as she did them. Surely many will remember Marci’s stargazing ritual and astronomical boom of laughter.