Page created by: Melissa McCallum

Mary B. McCallum passed away on September 28, 2019, at the age of 89 in Wilmette, IL. Born in Detroit to Thelma and Ralph Birkhill, Mary graduated from Highland Park High School, received her Bachelor of Arts with honors from Michigan State, and a Master of Arts from Northwestern University. Mary taught English at New Trier High School for 25 years and was a Girls Advisor for 14 years. A lifelong learner and an inspired educator who motivated her students to think beyond written words, she was also a keen and philosophical observer of society. A recipient of a National Endowment for Humanities grant, Mary studied the works of Thoreau in Concord, MA, and was a lifelong student of transcendentalism and the teachings of the Transcendentalists. In her never-ending quest for knowledge she studied Shakespeare and Women in Literature at Cambridge University, England; Renaissance Art and Literature in Florence, Italy, and traveled extensively after retiring from New Trier in 1990.

Residing in Palm Beach Gardens, FL for 25 years she was a volunteer for many worthy charitable organizations and served as a committed and valued volunteer at Cafe Joshua and for Hospice of Palm Beach County.

She lived with purpose and grace after being diagnosed with Parkinson's ten years ago and was determined to enlighten others of the various types of PD and how differently people were affected. A woman known for her elegance, style and youthful beauty many of her friends were unaware of her diagnosis until the last 6 months of her life when outward symptoms - impaired mobility and affected speech - became evident. Until that point she quietly experienced the interior tremors of the disease. She attributed her quirky sense of humor to her Norwegian heritage and loved a practical joke. She was brave and kind, lived with integrity and was true and a loyal friend.

She is remembered by so many for her wit, wisdom, sense of humor and mischief and is missed dearly by her friends and family.

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common." - William Henry Channing (1810-1884)