FALMOUTH – Margaret Gruenewald Cope, 90, died at her home at OceanView in Falmouth on Oct. 7, 2024. She had been kept company in her last week by a steady stream of children, grandchildren, in-laws, former in-laws, old friends and new. The sounds of dogs, family meals, and grandchildren catching up were a fitting and familiar chorus to the end of her amazing life.

Born in Potsdam, Germany in 1934, Margaret grew up in Sheboygan, Wis., where her Jewish obstetrician father had settled his young family after escaping Germany in 1936 and re-training in Chicago, Ill. as a general practitioner.

From Sheboygan, Wis., Margaret went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison. During her first in week in college, moving boats in front of the Union, she met Robert Cope, an agriculture student from Cambridge, Mass. They married at the end of their junior year, but — as she liked to say — only after Robert had received permission from his parents because he was not yet 21.

From Madison, Wis. they moved to Texas for Robert’s stint in the Air Force, while Margaret, a zoology and art major, worked in a primate lab, and then back to Cambridge, Mass. while Robert attended law school, and from there, to Worcester, Mass., where they spent 30 years, Robert practicing law, and Margaret becoming a gifted cook, photographer, seamstress, gardener, community volunteer, substitute teacher and friend. When the University of Massachusetts Medical Center opened in Worcester in 1974, Margaret became its Director of Volunteer Services, a position she held for 18 years, managing not only the hospital volunteers, but a gift shop, bookstore and art gallery.

In 1986, Robert’s longtime dream of farming led to the Copes’ move, initially part time, and then full-time, to a dairy farm on the Connecticut River in northern New Hampshire. Despite her misgivings, Margaret took to farm life and her new community, caring for Robert’s aging parents, her own mother, her grandchildren, raising chickens, gardening, quilting, volunteering, and always, always cooking for family and friends from around the world and all phases of her life who loved visiting the farm.

When Robert’s memory loss increased, and son Tom decided it was time to retire from farming to join Kathryn in Maine, Margaret, with her usual pluck, moved to OceanView and wholly embraced her new community, delivering newspapers early in the morning, organizing an I-Pad group and potlucks, pushing for raised beds for the frustrated gardeners, making new friends, and rejoicing in the company of old friends who had also moved to OceanView.

She was predeceased by her husband, Robert DeNormandie Cope in 2019, and is survived by her brother, Thomas Gruenewald; her son, Oliver Cope, his wife Hillary Johnson and their daughters Hannah and Sarah; her daughter, Eliza Cope Nolan and her children Oliver, Robert, and Sophia; and her son, Thomas Cope, his wife Kathryn Cope, and Tom’s son, Benjamin.

Contributions in Margaret’s memory may be made to Hospice of Southern Maine or the Falmouth Public Library.