Sally MacEwen (1948 - 2012)
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It is with great sadness that we share the news that a beloved educator and mentor in our community, Sally Anne MacEwen, has passed away at the all too early age of 64. She passed peacefully and in her sleep during the sunrise hour of Thursday morning, March 15, 2012, in a comfortable room at the Hospice Atlanta facilities. She died of respiratory failure brought about by symptoms of the ovarian cancer she had been bravely and stubbornly fighting for more than three years.
Sally was born in Abington, Pennsylvania in 1948 to Jack and Isabelle McVaugh, as the first of their three children. She and her siblings, Mary and Jay, spent their childhood in Riverton, New Jersey, in a rural suburban neighborhood populated with many members of their extended family and along side many close neighbors.
Sally was a lifelong (birthright) Quaker, a light that informed everything of her life, from her early schooling to the planning of her final days. The Quaker values of simplicity, integrity, peace, community, and equality shaped her eagerness to learn as a student, her career as a dedicated educator, her role in founding the Friends School of Atlanta, her service to racial and gender justice work, her activism for peace, her joy as a loving parent and partner, and her service to the Atlanta Friends Meeting and to the wider Quaker communities of the Religious Society of Friends.
She had a passion for education, both as a student and as a teacher. Her exceptional academic skills were nurtured throughout her elementary and high school years at Westfield and Moorestown Friends Schools in New Jersey, where she also started to explore the world of sports and excelled on the High School lacrosse team. She went on playing lacrosse as team captain at Mount Holyoke women’s college in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she received her B.A. degree in Classical Languages and Literature. She then attained her Ph.D. in the same field from the University of Pennsylvania, setting aside lacrosse to become a devoutly fanatic Phillies fan, a softball player and an avid Sporting News reader. Her first job in the field of Classics was teaching Greek and Latin on a two year contract with the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where she was drafted as the pitcher for a faculty softball team.
It is with great sadness that we share the news that a beloved educator and mentor in our community, Sally Anne MacEwen, has passed away at the all too early age of 64. She passed peacefully and in her sleep during the sunrise hour of Thursday morning, March 15, 2012, in a comfortable room at the Hospice Atlanta facilities. She died of respiratory failure brought about by symptoms of the ovarian cancer she had been bravely and stubbornly fighting for more than three years.
Sally was born in Abington, Pennsylvania in 1948 to Jack and Isabelle McVaugh, as the first of their three children. She and her siblings, Mary and Jay, spent their childhood in Riverton, New Jersey, in a rural suburban neighborhood populated with many members of their extended family and along side many close neighbors.
Sally was a lifelong (birthright) Quaker, a light that informed everything of her life, from her early schooling to the planning of her final days. The Quaker values of simplicity, integrity, peace, community, and equality shaped her eagerness to learn as a student, her career as a dedicated educator, her role in founding the Friends School of Atlanta, her service to racial and gender justice work, her activism for peace, her joy as a loving parent and partner, and her service to the Atlanta Friends Meeting and to the wider Quaker communities of the Religious Society of Friends.
She had a passion for education, both as a student and as a teacher. Her exceptional academic skills were nurtured throughout her elementary and high school years at Westfield and Moorestown Friends Schools in New Jersey, where she also started to explore the world of sports and excelled on the High School lacrosse team. She went on playing lacrosse as team captain at Mount Holyoke women’s college in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she received her B.A. degree in Classical Languages and Literature. She then attained her Ph.D. in the same field from the University of Pennsylvania, setting aside lacrosse to become a devoutly fanatic Phillies fan, a softball player and an avid Sporting News reader. Her first job in the field of Classics was teaching Greek and Latin on a two year contract with the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where she was drafted as the pitcher for a faculty softball team.
While lamenting the loss of a softball season final at an infamous Salt Lake pub, some friends introduced Sally to her eclectic equal, Aaron Ruscetta, the person who would become her life partner of 30 years. In 1982, having impressed the Classics department chair with her knowledge of Braves baseball, Sally accepted the offer of a tenure track position as a professor of Classical Languages and Literature at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. After she successfully taught her first two semesters free of romantic distractions, Aaron followed Sally to the Atlanta region in the spring of 1983. The couple then proceeded to both formalize and stress test their life partnership commitment by driving two motorcycles on a 3 month, 10,000 mile, coast to coast, “unhoneymoon” road trip across the U.S. and Canada.
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The couple's union endured the epic motorcycle journey and the challenges helped pave the way for the adventures of parenthood when the pair were gifted with the birth of Elaine Isabelle in June of 1986, a child kept warmly and elegantly clothed throughout her life by her mother's multitasking talents in knitting and sewing. Sally's love and devotion to her family was boundless and enduring, and her life partnership was joyously and perfectly honored in a public celebration of renewal on March 11th, 2012, just 4 days before her passing, when she and Aaron became legally married under the care of Atlanta Friends Meeting in a Quaker ceremony officiated by their 25 year old daughter.
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Continuing in her career at Agnes Scott College, Sally demonstrated a caring and constant commitment to her students that inevitably carried her to full tenure, then on to the position of Classics department chair as a full professor. She had an effervescent devotion to ancient literature with a special talent for revealing universal experiences and truths in classical texts. She regularly designed new Classics courses that employed relevant contrasts with ancient cultures to inform our understanding of the present, most recently developing and teaching a course entitled “Racism (or not) in Antiquity.”
In much of Sally's teaching and publication she illuminated the startling parallels between ancient mythic heroes and contemporary superheroes. In her career defining book “Superheroes and Greek Tragedy: Comparing Cultural Icons,” she posits that the foundational values of any culture can be exposed and examined through the lens of their heroic ideals. A favorite quote of hers from the book reads: “Remember, heroes don’t always do what is heroic, and what is heroic isn’t defined by heroes, it’s defined by you.”
Sally remained a consummate teacher and a beloved mentor to many throughout her 30 year career with Agnes Scott, whether she was serving as a role model for a life lived with integrity and purpose, offering extended hours as an adviser and counselor, or introducing countless students to the joys of knitting. She was also deeply devoted to issues of social justice, gender equality and non-violent conflict resolution, and her service to these causes contributed significantly to the diversity now visible throughout the Agnes Scott community. A cheerful and devoted colleague and campus citizen, she further served her vocation in countless other capacities, always bringing considerations of consensus process, diplomacy and patience to her collegial work, and always seeking to make her beloved college more inclusive, more just and more
compassionate.
Sally was also an active member and contributor to the Atlanta Friends Meeting, where she served many roles, including clerk of numerous committees and clerk of the meeting as a whole. In the Quaker tradition, she was a lightning rod who frequently melded her social concerns regarding education, social justice, equality, and peace with her spiritual community. Issues of educational inequity and misguided criticisms of teachers were of particular focus, and her articulate and diplomatic op-eds on such issues were frequently printed by the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In 2006 she combined her dedication to Quaker advocacy with her many teaching skills to join her daughter Elaine and a cherished colleague in leading a national Quaker conference workshop on respecting diverse experiences of the divine within the Religious Society of Friends. The workshop was attended by Sally's life partner, and finally brought Aaron to feel that his personal views of the divine were as welcome among Friends as any traditional teachings might be.
In further constancy with her devotion to education and Quaker principles, and to ensure that her own daughter Elaine enjoyed the same kind of principled and nurturing environment that she experienced as a child, Sally became instrumental in founding the Friends School of Atlanta, under the goal of creating a place of learning in love and light "where every child is always honored.” In the words of Waman French, the founding and current head of the institution:
In much of Sally's teaching and publication she illuminated the startling parallels between ancient mythic heroes and contemporary superheroes. In her career defining book “Superheroes and Greek Tragedy: Comparing Cultural Icons,” she posits that the foundational values of any culture can be exposed and examined through the lens of their heroic ideals. A favorite quote of hers from the book reads: “Remember, heroes don’t always do what is heroic, and what is heroic isn’t defined by heroes, it’s defined by you.”
Sally remained a consummate teacher and a beloved mentor to many throughout her 30 year career with Agnes Scott, whether she was serving as a role model for a life lived with integrity and purpose, offering extended hours as an adviser and counselor, or introducing countless students to the joys of knitting. She was also deeply devoted to issues of social justice, gender equality and non-violent conflict resolution, and her service to these causes contributed significantly to the diversity now visible throughout the Agnes Scott community. A cheerful and devoted colleague and campus citizen, she further served her vocation in countless other capacities, always bringing considerations of consensus process, diplomacy and patience to her collegial work, and always seeking to make her beloved college more inclusive, more just and more
compassionate.
Sally was also an active member and contributor to the Atlanta Friends Meeting, where she served many roles, including clerk of numerous committees and clerk of the meeting as a whole. In the Quaker tradition, she was a lightning rod who frequently melded her social concerns regarding education, social justice, equality, and peace with her spiritual community. Issues of educational inequity and misguided criticisms of teachers were of particular focus, and her articulate and diplomatic op-eds on such issues were frequently printed by the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In 2006 she combined her dedication to Quaker advocacy with her many teaching skills to join her daughter Elaine and a cherished colleague in leading a national Quaker conference workshop on respecting diverse experiences of the divine within the Religious Society of Friends. The workshop was attended by Sally's life partner, and finally brought Aaron to feel that his personal views of the divine were as welcome among Friends as any traditional teachings might be.
In further constancy with her devotion to education and Quaker principles, and to ensure that her own daughter Elaine enjoyed the same kind of principled and nurturing environment that she experienced as a child, Sally became instrumental in founding the Friends School of Atlanta, under the goal of creating a place of learning in love and light "where every child is always honored.” In the words of Waman French, the founding and current head of the institution:
"Sally was a founding member of FSA's Board of Trustees, of which she was founding clerk, serving eight years in that pioneering role. For many who were present on FSA's opening day in 1991, Sally was our guiding light and mother to our school. Her vision and commitment to building a beloved school community, richly diverse and welcoming to all, guided our school's formative development over its first ten years, forming the strong foundation upon which our school stands today in its 21st year. Sally loved our school into being and kept it growing throughout her life, participating in school events and serving on school committees well after her tenure as Clerk of the Board of Trustees."
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We hope that Aaron, Elaine and all the communities that were touched by Sally's time with us will join together in celebrating the formidable legacy of this most phenomenal partner, parent and humanitarian. In every aspect of her being, Sally lived and acted with a profound integrity born of the central Quaker belief that the Light of the Divine resides in everyone. |
Sally MacEwen is survived by her life partner and her daughter, Aaron and Elaine Ruscetta, by her siblings, Mary Shannon and Jay McVaugh, and by her mother Isabelle McVaugh.
Public memorial services were held on the afternoon of Saturday, May 5th at the Friends School of Atlanta. Anyone who was unable to attend the memorial service, or or was able to attend but wants to publicly share messages that arose, is invited to post to the message forum.
In lieu of flowers or personal gifts, donations in Sally MacEwen’s honor can be made to The Friends School of Atlanta under care of the “Legacy of Light” founders fund.To donate online, please visit The Friends School of Atlanta online giving website, specify this as a gift for the "Legacy of Light Fund", check the "In Memorium" box, and write "Sally MacEwen" as the person being memorialized.
Public memorial services were held on the afternoon of Saturday, May 5th at the Friends School of Atlanta. Anyone who was unable to attend the memorial service, or or was able to attend but wants to publicly share messages that arose, is invited to post to the message forum.
In lieu of flowers or personal gifts, donations in Sally MacEwen’s honor can be made to The Friends School of Atlanta under care of the “Legacy of Light” founders fund.To donate online, please visit The Friends School of Atlanta online giving website, specify this as a gift for the "Legacy of Light Fund", check the "In Memorium" box, and write "Sally MacEwen" as the person being memorialized.