Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Wildermann, Mary K. September 26, 2005
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Robert Woolfitt http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00034.html#0008401 August 5, 2022, 3:50 pm

Virginian-Pilot  September 30, 2005
NORFOLK - Mary Wildermann was unhappy with her new home.

Born in New Jersey, she considered New York City the center of the universe, and 
Norfolk, in 1961, was a world away.

"She thought her life was over, living in this backwater," said her son, Joseph.

Instead of moping, Wildermann took some advice from her sister - "Get out and do 
things."

She continued taking that advice until she died on Sept. 26. She was 86.

Wildermann was active in a number of areas, including the campus ministry at Old 
Dominion University, where her husband once taught, the Virginia Symphony and 
Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church.

"She wasn't one to sit around at home," Joseph Wildermann said.

Mary "Marcy" Wildermann married her husband, Fritz, in 1941 in New York. Twenty 
years later, the couple moved to Norfolk, where Fritz taught physics at the school 
that would become Old Dominion.

After four years, an exciting offer for Fritz came up - two years teaching at a 
small engineering college in Saudi Arabia. So, the family moved to the other side 
of the world.

"It was fascinating," said Joseph, who was in sixth grade at the time.

Mary made concessions to the family's new home. She didn't drive, adhering to the 
country's custom. She hosted dinner parties with food made from powdered milk, 
just to be safe. A wizard with a typewriter and shorthand, she clerked for the 
college dean, but sometimes had to hide because women were not supposed to work.

"She thought it was silly, but she accepted it," Joseph said.

The two-year contract turned into almost 20.

In the summers, the family traveled throughout Europe, looking up relatives in 
Ireland and Germany, and came home to the United States.

In 1983 , they returned for good. Fritz retired, and Marcy threw herself into 
community work again.

"She was such a social person," Joseph said.

She and her husband attended opera and symphony performances (Chopin's "Raindrop" 
prelude was a favorite), played bridge every week and traveled extensively, taking 
river rafting trips out West well into their 70s.

"She never looked back," Joseph said.

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