Anne Churchman, retired office manager and teacher’s aide, has died at 100
She earned a degree in English at Villanova University at 50 and was a longtime leader at Christ Church Ithan.
Anne Churchman, 100, formerly of Devon, retired office manager for the Radnor Township School District and Christ Church Ithan in St. Davids, teacher’s aide, lay minister, volunteer, and lifelong learner, died Thursday, May 29, of aspiration pneumonia at Dunwoody Village retirement center in Newtown Square.
Anne Myers dropped out of Smith College in 1944 to marry Bill Churchman in 1945 and rear three daughters and a son in Devon. Thirty years later, in 1974, she earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Villanova University and spent the next two decades supervising workplaces and teaching students at Bryn Mawr and Rosemont Elementary Schools and Harriton High School.
She managed the office for the Radnor Township School District in the 1980s and early ’90s, and supervised two colleagues, served as liaison between the parishioners and clergy, and scheduled all parish activities at Christ Church Ithan from 1978 to 1985.
She was a people person, a painter, and an avid reader. She was good with students and assisted teachers in the mid-1970s in the math and science departments at Harriton and in elementary school classes at Bryn Mawr and Rosemont.
“She was a nurturer,” her daughter Paige said. “She loved to learn.”
In the 1950s, Mrs. Churchman supervised four local charity fundraising drives and served on boards for the League of Women Voters, Radnor Memorial Library, and Wayne Art Center. She was a program chair, vice president, and president of the Women of Christ Church Ithan in the 1960s, and chair of volunteers for the Shipley School thrift shop in the 1970s.
She volunteered as a teacher’s aide at the Main Line Child Care Center in 1973 and ’74, and was captain of a Radnor Hunt tennis team for three years in the 1960s. Later, she trained for four years to become an Episcopal lay minister.
“She was playful, inventive, and creative,” her children said in a tribute.
Anne Welsh Myers was born during a blizzard on Jan. 5, 1925, in Philadelphia. Her family moved from Chestnut Hill to St. Davids when she was young and spent memorable summers at Lake Champlain in Essex, N.Y.
At Shipley, she was president and vice president of her class, head of the literary magazine, and a standout on the field hockey, lacrosse, and tennis teams. She graduated in 1942 and spent 2½ years at Smith in Massachusetts.
She and her husband lived in Virginia and California before settling in Devon, and had daughters Paige, Nancy, and Bz and a son, Peter. They divorced later. Her husband died in 2011.
Mrs. Churchman studied the Bible, joined Parents Without Partners, and routinely outplayed tennis opponents half her age. “She would never let me leave the court until I hit a good shot,” her daughter Bz said. “She said it was better to end on a good note.”
She followed the Phillies, the Eagles, and especially the Flyers, and read mysteries and memoirs. She enjoyed word puzzles, card games, foot massages, and all kinds of jokes.
She traced ancestors back to the Mayflower and drew in her sketchbook at family get-togethers.
She moved to Dunwoody Village in 2005 and worked in the gift shop, kept minutes for the history committee, and played bridge until she couldn’t see the cards. Her family said her imitation of an agitating washing machine was priceless.
Mrs. Churchman was the third of five children growing up, and her children said: “She carried the peacemaking skills of the middle child throughout her 100 years.”
In addition to her children, Mrs. Churchman is survived by three grandchildren, a great-granddaughter, a sister, and other relatives. Two brothers and a sister died earlier.
A memorial service is to be at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 26, at Christ Church Ithan, 536 Conestoga Rd., Villanova, Pa. 19085.
Donations in her name may be made to the First Nations Development Institute, 2432 Main St., Longmont, Colo. 80501.