SACO/YARMOUTH – Marsha J. Newick, 79, a resident of 3 Shannon Lane in Saco since 2019, who lived in Yarmouth for 43 years before that, died at home on March 13, 2023 after battling Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

A New Hampshire native, she moved to Maine with her husband, Jeff, in 1972 and taught for 40 years in the Yarmouth school system, retiring in 2016 at 73. She was a lifelong learner whose teaching career, including the years in New Hampshire, spanned over 50 years and six different decades.

Marsha was born on April 13, 1943, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, to John and Annette (LaBelle) Jordan of Newmarket, N.H. Marsha grew up in Newmarket, N.H. and graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1961 from the town’s high school. Marsha went on to major in elementary education and minor in political science at the University of New Hampshire, graduating in 1965. She was awarded a master’s degree in mathematics education from the Boston University School of Education in 1968. Almost 30 years later, she received a master’s degree in American and New England Studies from the University of Southern Maine.

The first few years of Marsha’s teaching career were in Somersworth, Durham, and Merrimack, N.H. Upon moving to Maine in 1972, she became academic director of the Levey Day School at Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh in Portland. She worked there until the spring of 1975, leaving then to await the birth of their beloved daughter, Courtney Jordan Newick, in April.

She returned to teaching half-time at the Yarmouth Intermediate School in the Fall of 1976 and resumed full-time teaching five years later. The great passion of her last 20 years in education was teaching social studies to middle school students. She retired in 2016. During her years in Yarmouth, Marsha served as president of the Yarmouth Teachers Association (1980-81), and was very involved with the Maine and National History Day competitions, as well as the National Geographic Maine Geography Bee. She was selected as the Maine Social Studies Teacher of the Year in 2012.

Marsha was predeceased by her parents; her twin brother, Peter of Florida, her oldest brother, Gerard of Exeter, N.H.; and her sister, Thelma of York as well as Thelma’s son Scott of York and her daughter Diane Antman of California. Thelma’s surviving child, Tom and his wife, Diane Duggento, of Bartlett, N.H., and Arizona, have been particularly close to Marsha and Jeff in recent years.

Marsha is survived by Jeff, her husband of 54 years; their much loved only child, Dr. Courtney J. Pepe of New Jersey, and her husband Joe Pepe; Courtney’s mother-in-law Carole Pepe and the extended Pepe, Finn, and Nunez families in Bayonne, N.J. She is also survived by her sisters Natalie True of Orinda, Calif. and Jean Jennings of Newmarket, N.H., and brother, John Jordan of Concord, N.H. She leaves behind 15 nieces and nephews; and many great-nieces and nephews. Additional survivors include her brother-in-law, Jack Newick and his wife Diane of Dover, N.H., their sons Brad, Jim, and Steve, and their families. Finally, Marsha leaves behind a small core group of close friends in Yarmouth, Saco, East Orland, and Milford, N.H. You know who you are; she loved all of you and valued your friendship immensely.

There will be no services at this time.

Arrangements are entrusted to Dennett, Craig & Pate Funeral Home Saco, http://www.dcpate.com

Those who would like to honor Marsha’s life may do so by donating in her memory to the

Annual Fund of the Yarmouth Historical Society/Yarmouth History Center,

118 East Elm St.,

Yarmouth, ME 04096;

http://www.yarmouthmehistory.org

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