Martha M. Wampler

On December 27, 2009 Martha Wampler (née Maybury) passed away peacefully at the Dorothy Frances Home in Waltham, Massachusetts, where she was cared for as a dementia patient for the past five years. Martha was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1928, where her father was pastor of the Church of the Nazarene. She graduated from Somerville, Massachusetts, High School in 1945 and from Eastern Nazarene College, Wollaston, Massachusetts, in 1950. Martha’s musical training included her years at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and at Long Beach State College in California, where she gained her master’s in musicology. Later she studied for a year with world-renowned composer, Carl Orff in Salzburg, Austria. Martha was a quintessential musician. With a grant from the Endowment for the Arts, she and Carl Orff’s wife introduced Orff Schulwerk into U.S. schools in the 1960s. She continued using this rythmic approach to music with seniors and children in community groups throughout California. Martha married Hadley Smith in 1959. After a divorce in 1967, she married Dr. Norman Wampler, Superintendent of Schools in Bellflower, California. On his retirement, Dr. Wampler and Martha lived in Santa Monica and later in Austin, Texas, where Dr. Wampler died in 2000. Martha is survived by two brothers, Dr. Robert Maybury of Falls Church, Virginia and Dr. Paul Calvin Maybury, The Villages, Florida, as well as nine nephews and nieces and many devoted friends. Memorial contributions may be made to Eastern Nazarene College, the New England Conservatory of Music, or the Alzheimer’s Association.