Mary Mcculloch Mcginnis

Mary McCulloch McGinnis, 96, was born in Stalybridge, England. Her father, Andrew McCulloch, was a chemistry professor. Her mother, Elsie Ridgway, was a piano teacher and temperance advocate who died when Mary was two years old. As a child, Mary recalled watching her father, a veteran of World War I, shaking his fist at German bombers as they flew over their house heading for Manchester industrial targets. In 1940, she chose to join other faculty children evacuating to Canada as Britain faced a Nazi invasion. Once in Toronto, she worked to lose her British accent and was elected president of her senior high school class. Upon graduation, she again crossed the North Atlantic in wartime to attend the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Later she received a master’s degree in sociology at Columbia University. While at Columbia she met her first husband, the late Joseph Stycos. They later moved to Puerto Rico, North Carolina and Canton, NY before settling in Ithaca. Mary worked at Cornell University as a research assistant and director of CIVITAS. She was also active in the community serving as the commissioner of Sandlot baseball, a PTA president and Day Care Council board member, In 1974, she and others formed the New Junior High Program (aka Markles Flats) which later expanded into the high school grades and became the Lehman Alternative Community School. In 1977 she was elected to the Ithaca School Board and served as its chairperson 1979-80. Upon moving to Kendal at Ithaca, she was active in wellness efforts and the History Readers Club.

She is predeceased by her second husband, Robert McGinnis and her brother John McCulloch of Scotland. She is survived by her son Steven Stycos of Cranston, RI, daughter Kristina Stykos of Lincoln, Vermont, stepson Kevin McGinnis of Hallowell, Maine and daughter-in-laws Christine Herbert and Nancy McGinnis. She also has six grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

An optimist and active Democrat, she loved the outdoors, John McPhee’s writing and Purity ice cream. Contributions in her memory may be sent to Food Bank of the Southern Tier in Elmira.