Mary Rohrer Frey Education Scholarship

Education was very important to Mary. She attended Goshen College and received her education degree in 1953. She was an elementary school teacher in Indiana and Illinois before moving back to Wadsworth, Ohio, to live with her mother after the death of her father. There she taught first grade in a Wadsworth elementary school for nine years.

Mary loved children, and though she had none of her own, she poured her energies into the lives of her students. Mary had a special interest in teaching reading to children phonetically and was very good at this, advocating for the use of phonics. Three of her first-grade students later became her step-children at ages 16, 14 and 11, when she married their father, Dempwolf Frey in 1971 after the death of their mother, who had been a good friend to Mary.

During the year prior to her marriage, Mary taught in Newfoundland with the Teachers Abroad Program of Mennonite Central Committee. There she taught all eight grades with a total of about 12 students. After her marriage to Dempwolf, the family moved to Cleveland and she discontinued her teaching career to focus on helping raise her family. Mary’s faith and church life were also important to her, and she continued involvement with Bethel Mennonite Church in Wadsworth, where she was a life-long member.