Born on April 17, 1939, to Alphons and Leona (Broerman) Romer, Mary Ellen grew up in east Dayton, graduated from Julienne High School, and received a BS cum laude and an MS in education from the University of Dayton. She taught elementary school for 34 years and was endlessly dedicated to her students; the pay was lousy and the demands were many, but she believed passionately in the power of education to change lives and the right of every child to get a good one. She chaired the Spinning Hills English department, volunteered as a Muse Machine advisor, and was honored as a Martha Holden Jennings Scholar. From 1989 to 1991, she served as president of the Mad River Education Association, leading her fellow teachers in a spirited fight for a just contract.
After retiring in 2001, Mary Ellen trained her boundless energy and good heart on volunteer work. She became a docent at the Dayton Art Institute, where she delighted in sharing with area kids the same works of art that had opened her eyes as a child to beauty and the bigger world. She tutored homeless students at St. Vincent de Paul’s, and devoted countless hours to growing and sustaining the St. Leonard’s Faith Community that she so dearly loved. Whether you needed help, a good laugh, or her Aunt Mildred’s sugar-cookie recipe, she was unfailingly there.
Together with her husband, Tom, whom she called her prince, Mary Ellen traveled the world, eager to see and learn as much as she could from other people and cultures. She was a fantastic cook, a voracious reader, a repeat writer of letters-to-the-editor, and above all an irrepressibly proud mother, stepmother, and grandmother, cheering us on in every effort we ever undertook or thought to. At 77 she donned a pink hat and marched with her daughter on Washington, at 78 she hopped on the back of her son Rich’s Vespa, and at 79 she gamely honored Auburn tradition by downing a shot of Fireball at her granddaughter Katie’s graduation. We will miss her every day.
Mary Ellen is survived by her husband, Tom; her sister, Barbara Ann Romer; her children: Marty Grunder and his wife, Lisa; Rich Grunder and his wife, Christina Economou; and Kathryn Grunder; her stepchildren: Michael Graham and his wife, Mary Ellen Kraus; Tom Graham and his wife, Shari Altman; Maura Lensink; and Terrence Graham and his wife, Yulia; and her grandchildren: Emily, Katie, Nate, Willem, Jacob, Lily, Elena, Grant, and Peter.
Visitation will be held at Tobias Funeral Home, 5471 Far Hills Ave., from 4 to 8 p.m. on Monday, February 25, and at St. Leonard Chapel, 8100 Clyo Road, at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. The funeral service will begin at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, with a reception to follow immediately in the undercroft at St. Leonard’s.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (raicestexas.org) or to the Muse Machine (musemachine.com).
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