Margery “Gerry” Arzonico Clement

FALMOUTH – Margery “Gerry” Arzonico Clement of Falmouth, died on April 2, 2020 of pancreatic cancer at home and surrounded by family.Gerry was born in Portland on Oct. 25, 1929, the daughter of Guido Joseph and Elsie Sellier Arzonico of Yarmouth. She graduated in the Waynflete class of 1947, among friends who have remained close throughout her life. She received a B.A. from Smith College in 1951 and a few years later went on to earn an M.A. in English and Drama and then a Master of Letters in Theatre at Middlebury College.Gerry initially held a variety of jobs: at the New York Public Library, then on a Norwegian freighter, and as the first supervisor of the new Children’s Playroom at Maine Medical Center. She was formerly married to the late Frederick B. Webster and to the late Bennett B. Schneider IV. Gerry was always a voracious reader and she eventually followed her passion for literature into her first job teaching English, at Yarmouth High School and then at High Mowing School in New Hampshire. The bulk of her teaching career, however, was the many rewarding years she spent teaching English and theatre at Thayer Academy in Braintree, Mass., with time also spent directing theatre courses and plays at Phillips Andover Academy in Massachusetts. She finished teaching with one year at her alma mater, Waynflete, and after marriage to her beloved husband.Gerry’s teaching years next became her enjoyable paralegal years, searching real estate titles for the Verrill Dana Law Firm and Atlantic Title Co. She also became a member of Portland Stage Company’s Board of Trustees.Prompted by a lifelong dislike of prejudice and bigotry, she joined the Maine Speakout Project and worked tirelessly for gay rights. She eventually becoming a board member, and traveled Maine and elsewhere delivering talks based on personal experiences. A highlight of this time came the day she marched with Maine Speakout the length of New York City’s 5th Avenue on the city’s Gay Pride day, flanked on one side by her son, Ben, and on the other by her daughter, Sally, and baby grandson, Theo. While constantly delighted by the humorous aspects of life, the inequities were never far from Gerry’s mind. She is predeceased by her son, Frederick Jeffries Webster.She is survived by her husband, Bruce P. Clement; her two children, Sally C. Webster of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Bennett B. Schneider V of Los Angeles; her stepchildren, David W. Clement (Tara), Timothy G. Clement (Cathy), Joel P. Clement, and Margaret B. Clement; her grandson, Theo D. Tarrega, and her grandstepchildren, Jonathan and Matthew Clement and Samuel and Noah Clement. Please visit www.lindquistfuneralhome.com to view Gerry’s online guestbook.

Margery “Gerry” Arzonico Clement