Priscilla Marsh

Priscilla Atwater Marsh, age 86, died peacefully on October 17, 2014. Priscilla was born April 24, 1928, in New York City, the daughter of William C. Atwater, Jr., and Evelyn Foster.

Priscilla was raised in Douglaston, NY, and graduated from the Baldwin School. She received a BA from Mt. Holyoke College in Holyoke, MA. She was an avid sailor, tennis player and extensive world traveler, having been proud of spending time on every continent. She was also fascinated with genealogy and traced her heritage back to her ancestral home in Lenham, Kent, England, occupied by David Atwater (9 generations previous) until he emigrated to America in 1637. http://gohistoric.com/places/443067/essays/41815 Her grandfather is said to have built their summer home in Westhampton Beach, Long Island, NY with the ancestral home design in mind. http://hamptons.curbed.com/tags/william-c-atwater Priscilla would often recount her summer memories as a child there, feeling a bit awkward and out of place, so in contrast to her grandparents, she chose to live a simple life of service, dedicated to volunteerism and helping others.

In 1950, she married Carleton Lewis Marsh, Jr., of Riverside, CT, and lived the itinerate life of a New York Central railroader, living in 10 different towns in Ohio, Indiana and New York over 20 years until Carl left the business world, and became an Episcopal priest. They served at St. Paul’s in Bellevue, and at Christ Church in Hudson, OH. Tragically, Carl died in 1980 after a difficult battle with cancer. Priscilla was just getting started.
Priscilla’s business card read “Professional Volunteer.” She quietly helped out many, always anonymously. She paid the full college tuition for at least 10 different people, and secretly purchased musical instruments for struggling musicians, among many other donations. For 10 years she volunteered as an Emergency Medical Technician in Hudson, Ohio and was a leader of the local chapter of the League of Women Voters. Later, Priscilla moved to Leawood, Kansas and was active in St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Mission, KS, and the Kansas League of Women Voters. She was a dedicated amateur librarian, organizing and running multiple church libraries in Wyoming, Kansas and Illinois where she resided. For the last 25 years of her life, she summered in Dubois WY, serving as a volunteer and later a board member for Ring Lake Ranch, an ecumenical retreat center in the Wind River Mountains. In 1995 she built a home near Dubois, “The Evergreens”, where she lived 6 months a year while continuing her work at Ring Lake and helping St. Thomas Episcopal Church.

Priscilla also became a skilled amateur photographer, specializing in Rocky Mountain wildflowers, and her skill was recognized when she held her own exhibition in Kansas City.

She moved to Barrington, IL, for the last few years of her life, where her library work and prayer shawl ministry continued with St. Michael’s, Barrington.

Priscilla’s younger brother William Cutler Atwater III predeceased her. She is survived by her younger sister, Doris Bowensch of Waveland, MA, and by her sons, David Carleton Marsh of Long Grove, IL, Richard Cutler Marsh of Houston, TX, and her daughter Dr. Anne Marsh Egbert of Springfield, MO. She also has 3 grandchildren, Caitlyn Anne Marsh, John Carleton Marsh, and Stephen Richard Marsh.

Memorial services will be held in Barrington, IL; Mission, KS; Brooklyn, NY; and Dubois WY. Final interment will be in the Atwater family plot in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY, and Dubois, WY, near her beloved Wyoming home. Her husband’s ashes will be reburied beside her.

In lieu of flowers, her family requests that donations be made to St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Barrington IL (647 Dundee,60010 www.stmichaelsbarrington.org or Journeycare Hospice, Barrington, IL (www.journeycare.org (405 Lake Zurich Rd; 60010) or St. Michael and All Angels Church, Mission, KS (6630 Nall Ave, 66202) www.stmaa.net or Ring Lake Ranch, Dubois, WY (P.O. Box 806, Dubois 82513) www.ringlake.org or St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Dubois WY ( S. 1st St, 82513) www.stthomasdubois.diowy.org