Obituary

Margaret Schwartz

Fri, 04/23/2021 - 11:15am

Margaret “Margie or Bommer” Camp Boes Schwartz, 94, of Twin Creek Drive in Peru, New York died April 21, 2021 at her home, under the loving care of her family and Hospice of the North Country.

Margaret was born in Middletown, Connecticut on April 25, 1926, the daughter of Burton and Rachel (Rice) Camp. She attended Connecticut College 1943-47 and graduated with a B.A. in physical education. She then attended the Harvard Physical Therapy Program 1947-49 and graduated first in her class.

Margaret worked as a physical therapist at Massachusetts General Hospital before starting the Poliomyelitis Center of the South at Vanderbilt University in 1950. In 1955, she returned to Boston to teach at the Bouve Physical Therapy School at Tufts University while working at the Children’s Hospital doing muscle testing during the polio epidemic. She also later worked at the California Rehabilitation Center in California before serving as Chief Physical Therapist at Waterbury Hospital in Connecticut.

Everyone familiar with Margaret understood that she hated to sit and wanted to be up and moving all the time. She split her time between spending her summers in Boothbay Harbor, Maine (every year since 1942) and the rest of the year in and around wherever she lived at the time. Even into her 90s she was downhill skiing, swimming with dolphins and diving into the 58F ocean in Linekin Bay. She also adored dogs and always had one or more at her side. Although she might occasionally forget people’s names, she always remembered the names of their dogs. Margaret was also passionate about equal rights for everyone regardless of race, color, religion or sexual orientation and fought discrimination of any kind. She was very involved with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, NAACP as well as the local Underground Railroad museum.

In addition to her parents, Margaret was predeceased by her first husband, Warren Boes, her sister, Miriam Camp Camps, her brother, Paul Camp as well as her stepson, Fritz Schwartz, and her step grandson, Andy.

Margaret is survived by her second husband, Richard Schwartz, her children, Rachel Boes Romanowicz (Ed Romanowicz) and Richard (Lori) Boes and her stepchildren Kate Mortimer, Stuart (Doug Federhart) Holland, Eric (Margaret Yaukey) Schwartz and Frieda (Brett Nyman) Cialek as well as her grandchildren (Joshua, Matthew, Rebecca and Alex) and her step grandchildren (Christopher, Andrew and John).

Donations in Margaret’s memory may be made to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Plattsburgh, Hospice of the North Country, Elmore SPCA, or Guiding Eyes for the Blind.

An online service in celebration of Margaret’s life is being planned. Please go to the www.uuplattsburgh.org for more information.

Arrangements are in the care of the Hamilton Funeral Home, 294 Mannix Road, Peru 518-643-9055. To offer an online condolence, share a symbolic gesture, or share a photo in memory of Margaret, please visit www.hamiltonfuneralhome.com