Marian Lang Blanchard

Marian Lang Blanchard, a native of Hamilton and a resident of Kendal at Ithaca since 2002, died February 10, 2025. She was 98.

Born in Hamilton on September 17, 1926, she was the daughter of the late Louis B. and Katherine Werdge Lang. She was valedictorian of the Hamilton High School class of 1944 and attended Cornell University. In 1947, she married John Milton Blanchard. He died in 1989.

For 35 years, she was a writer/editor at Colgate University, and was managing editor of the alumni publication and associate director of communications at the time of her retirement in 1996.

As a member of Hamilton’s First Baptist Church, she compiled a 200-year history of the church for its 1996 bicentennial. She also served as church archivist and village historian.

Mrs. Blanchard was a past president of the Hamilton Fortnightly Club, member of the Hamilton Club, Education Unlimited Board, and Hamilton Forum Committee. Also, as a resident of the village she had served as secretary of the College- Community Relations Council, the Hamilton Public Library Board, and the local League of Women Voters.

In 2002, she moved to Kendal at Ithaca where she had been secretary of the Resident’s Council and a participant in many of the retirement community’s activities.

Survivors include a daughter, Wendy Blanchard of Endwell, New York; a son and daughter-in-law, John and Debra Blanchard of Clarksville, Virginia; and several nephews.