Marjorie E Glidden

Marjorie E. Glidden, a long-time Ashland resident, died at her home on November 20.

Marjorie was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, in 1927, and moved to Ashland from Pittsfield, Maine, in 1943, when her father, Percy Bastow, accepted a position as a chemist in the dye operations at the L.W. Packard & Company woolen mill. Marjorie graduated from Ashland High School in 1945. Following the career path of her mother, Maude Bastow, Margaret Pillsbury Hospital class of 1919, she then enrolled as a nurse cadet at the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, graduating as a registered nurse in 1946 and working as a nurse in Newton, Massachusetts, and later at Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth.

In 1951, Marjorie married John E. Glidden and moved to their home on Highland Street, where they raised their children. Marjorie and Jack farmed, gardened, hunted, fished, and traveled the world together until Jack’s death in 1993, after which she continued to travel and garden with her children and friends.

Marjorie was a 4-H leader, a Pony Club district commissioner, and a member of the Ashland Garden Club and the Ashland Historical Society. She served on two Ashland school building committees, for the Allen K. Ober School and the Glidden Annex, and on the scholarship committee of the Ashland Women’s Club until her death. She taught Sunday school at the Ashland First Free Will Baptist Church and was later a member of the Plymouth Congregational Church. Marjorie loved walking in the woods with her dogs, and in 2008 she conserved her land with an easement donated to the Squam Lakes Conservation Society. She enjoyed skiing, painting water colors, growing tea roses, and playing golf, cribbage, and bridge. A visit to her house usually found Marjorie playing her favorite music on her Steinway, from classical repertoire to popular music, show tunes, and jazz.

Most of all, Marjorie loved being surrounded by her family of four children and their spouses, Jane E. and James Raymond, Susan M. and Peter Francesco, John L. and Yvonne Glidden, and Joan P. Glidden and Douglas Brosius, nine grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. She was a model of grace, generosity, and strength for all of them.

Donations in Marjorie’s memory may be made to the Ashland Women’s Club Scholarship Committee, c/o Alexandria Allain, 68 Hicks Hill Road, Ashland, NH 03217 or to the Squam Lakes Conservation Society, PO Box 696, Holderness, NH 03245.

A private burial is planned.  Dupuis Funeral Home in Ashland is handling the arrangements.