Marjorie Ann Priser, 69, of Clunette, Kosciusko County, passed away at 2:54 p.m. July 30, 2011, in RiverCrest Specialty Hospital, Mishawaka.
She was born Nov. 14, 1942, in Kosciusko County, to Condict Earl and Marjorie Hope Wallace Vandermark. On Dec. 9, 1978, at Houghton Lake, Mich., she married Lawrence “Boomer” Priser, who survives.
She graduated from Leesburg High School in 1960, and received a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University to be a teacher and librarian. She and her son moved to Lowell and Tempe, Ariz., where she taught grade school children and managed the library.
She began working at R.R. Donnelley & Sons in 1972 and was a material handler for many years, retiring in 2003. Michigan, a place she discovered with Boomer, was dear to her heart. She experienced and explored the area while snowmobiling, ice fishing and searching for sea glass and Petoskey stones.
She was a lifetime member of the Kosciusko County Historical Society, and will be remembered for her tireless efforts of preserving genealogy and local history for others. She was instrumental in getting many reels of 16 mm films of Kosciusko County events donated by Ralph and Gladys Boice to be restored and preserved for future generations.
As a historical researcher, she looked for hidden information – history that is otherwise undiscovered by most people – and transferred it to her website to be accessible to everyone. Her particular area of expertise was Civil War soldier information, which is available on the Kosciusko County Gen Website. She manually typed and published online many historical Times-Union articles for public research. She was co-editor of the “History of Warsaw” book published in 2001, and she authored many genealogy books for the Historical Society. She also had an avid interest in the historical Lincoln Highway and coordinated a ceremony in 1995 to rededicate the Warsaw marker at Funk Park. She was honored by the National Lincoln Highway Association with a prestigious award for her contributions to the preservation of the history of the Lincoln Highway.
She will be remembered by all who knew and loved her as a teacher and mentor. She researched with zealous passion any subject, hobby or love that anyone she knew was interested in – she taught the joy of knowledge.
She will be missed by those she leaves for a time, her husband, Boomer; son Dennis Hepler; sisters Melba Jean (and spouse Russell) Sipress, Elkhart, and Eileen K. Vandermark, Hellerup, Denmark; five nieces and nephews, great-nieces and -nephews and a great-great-nephew. She was preceded in death by a brother, Lester “Bud” Vandermark.
Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Titus Funeral Home, Warsaw, officiated by Pastor Michael Beezley of Clunette United Methodist Church. Burial will be in Oakwood Cemetery, Warsaw.
Calling is from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.
***** Memorials may be made to the Kosciusko County Historical Society, Genealogy Section, P.O. Box 1071, Warsaw, IN 46581; or to the charity of the donor’s choice.
