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PELHAM, N.Y. -- Barbara Rothe Merin, devoted wife of Dr. Robert Gillespie Merin, died Nov. 16, 2016.
The third daughter of Paul Neerguaard Rothe’ and Edna Hanson Rothe, she was born in New Rochelle.
She was the mother of Michael Gillespie Merin and his wife Betsy; granddaughter, Katherine Elizabeth, of Wayne, Pa., Dr. Jan Marie Merin of Salem, Ore. and Sarah Louise Merin of Cambridge, Mass.
She grew up in Pelham Manor and was a graduate of Pelham Memorial High School. She attended Wells College for two years before going to Cornell University New York School of Nursing, where she graduated in 1957.
Married in 1958 to medical student Robert Gillespie Merin, she worked for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York before moving to Charlottesville, Va. for her husband's internship, where she taught obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Virginia School of Nursing and then at Cornell University, New York Hospital School of Nursing.
When she and her husband retired in South Carolina, she returned to her first passion -- writing. While completing four novels, she, with the help of her husband, started a gay rights PFLAG support group in the middle of Bible Belt in 1998.
Another long-term passion to swim also made possible with her husband as her manager. She became a national Master’s All American first-place swimming champion in the 100 freestyle in 1999.
The couple moved to Wynnewood, Pa. in 2004 and she was a member of the senior choir of the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.
There will be a memorial service at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10 at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, 615 Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa.
In lieu of flowers, please donate to Dunwoody, Cedars West, 3500 West Chester Pike, Newtown Square, PA 19073.
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