Mary "Mimi" MacNamee

Mary “Mimi” (McQuiston) MacNamee died, Oct. 15, 2014, at Harvest Hill, from complications due to stroke. She was born in 1925 in Erie, PA, to Daniel and Helene (Johnson) McQuiston. As a child, she was a walking oxymoron: pathologically shy yet quite a tomboy, competitive yet self-effacing, stubborn yet generous. As she grew up, she learned to channel all that internal friction into positive energy. (Which might explain why she chose to major in Physics in college.) In 1944 in Wellesley, MA, she met the love of her life – Hugh MacNamee, a private in the Army who, at the age of 19, was selected to attend Columbia Medical School as part of the Army’s pilot program to produce field surgeons quickly. Mimi and Hugh married at the age of 20 and never looked back. She transferred from Wellesley College to Barnard College. She tutored Hugh and other med students in their science classes. She learned to keep a baseball box score so she could recreate the day’s game for them when they came home. She gave birth to a son, then another. She held down the fort while Hugh served in Korea. Over the next few years she gave birth to two more boys. She roughhoused with all of them. She and Hugh filled their lives with music, sports, humor, ethics, nature, creative thought and, above all, compassion. In the 1960s, when Hugh changed medical specialties and went back to being an intern, Mimi earned her teaching certificate and became a full-time working mother, long before it was popular. They moved to Hanover in 1969. When Hugh died suddenly in 1983, his family, friends and colleagues created a charitable trust in his honor to provide continuing education in the mental health field, as well as financial support for adolescents and families in need of counseling. For the next 30 years, Mimi devoted all of her time, energy and resources to helping others in need, whether raising scholarship money by heading up the Five-Colleges Book Sale, captaining Hugh’s charitable trust, nursing aged parents, serving on the boards of local charities, donating to countless national charities, or simply giving ailing neighbors rides to doctors’ appointments. She wasn’t trying to save the world – just her little corner of it, one human being at a time. Mimi is survived by son Dana MacNamee of Medford, MA; son Jay MacNamee of Rye, NH; son Bart MacNamee of West Lebanon, NH.