Melchert, Mary Ann Hostetler (1927-2005)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2005 Nov 28 p. 11

Birth date: 1927 May 10

text of obituary:

MARY ANN MELCHERT

Mary Ann Melchert, of the Bay Area in California, died Nov. 13, 2005. She was born May 10, 1927, to S. Jay Hostetler and Ida Miller in Pontiac, Ill.

At an early age she moved to Madhya Pradesh, India, where her parents served as Mennonite missionaries. She boarded at Mount Hermon School in Darjeeling. She graduated in 1944 with Mount Hermon's top academic award for girl students.

Attending Goshen (Ind.) College, she received a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1948. After teaching first grade in Gary, Ind., she went to Japan in 1952 for mission work. The next summer she met Jim Melchert, who shared her love of singing, and they were married in 1954 in Tokyo.

They returned to the U.S. in 1956 and moved to the Bay Area in 1959 for his graduate study at the University of California-Berkeley. She enrolled there and earned a California Teaching Certificate. She taught at Roosevelt Junior High in Oakland in 1972-73. Her husband's postings at the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington, D.C., 1976-80, and later as director of the American Academy in Rome, 1982-86, elevated her to the role of an official hostess.

She had a passion for reading. A resolute pacifist, she was outraged by injustices. She so enjoyed people she met that she took great pleasure in keeping track of their whereabouts. For years she sent Christmas cards of her own design, and her annual mailings to friends were more than 1,100. She is remembered for her dynamic spirit, her forthrightness, dignity, concern for the welfare of others and her readiness to embark on new adventures.

Survivors include her husband, Jim; three children, Christopher Melchert of Oxford, England, David Seth Melchert of Oakland and Renée Melchert Thorpe of Bali, Indonesia; brother John Jay Hostetler of Green Valley, Ariz.; sister Lois Young-Bjerkestrand of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; and five grandchildren.

A memorial gathering will take place Dec. 11 at St John's Presbyterian Church and Center in Berkeley.