Marcia M. Chambers

Marcia M. Chambers — Gram for short — our family’s master baker of chocolate chip cookies, and the person responsible for a familial addiction to the ocean, passed away on Saturday, May 2nd after a brief illness. Outside of her passion for the ocean, she was known for her smile, independence, stubborn determination, and her unwavering loyalty to any underdog.

But she wouldn’t want us to tell you about that. She’d want to make sure you knew how proud she was of her four grandchildren — Mason, Thatch, Jack and Cate.

Gram graduated from Cardinal Cushing College with a B.A. in English and held jobs as the College’s admissions director, and also as a promotions writer at WNAC in Boston. Even though she grew up in a small town in north central Massachusetts, the ocean was in her blood — and is now in all of ours.

After marrying and spending a few brief years in Westwood Massachusetts (with an epic number of weekend trips to Good Harbor beach in Gloucester) Gram moved her husband and children to Ipswich in 1973 — the place she called home for the next 53 years.

But she wouldn’t want us to tell you about that. She’d want you to know what a beautiful writer her granddaughter Cate is and what a talented actor her grandson Mason is.

Once settled in Ipswich, Gram became an enthusiastic participant in town life. She was a first-rate field trip chaperone and classroom aid, served on search committees for various positions in the Ipswich school system, was a faithful Town Meeting attendee with her husband and was a steady presence on the sidelines and in the audiences of her children’s — and their friends’ — sporting, musical and theater activities. And when Gram’s own children were grown, she generously supported the aspirations of countless other Ipswich children as a teacher at Cuvilly Arts & Earth Center and at Garden Preschool, both in Ipswich.

But she wouldn’t want us to tell you about that. She would want you to know what a swift runner her grandson Jack is and what a successful college basketball coach her grandson Thatch is.

Gram was Mason’s, Thatch’s, Jack’s and Cate’s biggest fan in every way. She was known to attend two separate soccer games, and a theater production all in one day, plus a band concert the following evening — buzzing around the North Shore from one event to the next in her sliver VW Golf while racking up over 86,000 miles. As long as her grandkids were participating, Gram was there…even when their much younger and exhausted parents were not.

Gram has left us all a little too soon — as she moved into her 80s she would often and adamantly state “I’m not done yet!” — and we will miss her constant, steadying presence in our daily lives. However, her deep devotion to her grandchildren, all her family and friends, and of course the ocean, sets an example that each of us will follow for the rest of our lives — because Gram wouldn’t tolerate any less.

She leaves her grateful children, Jacqueline Phypers and her husband Josh, Jennifer Chambers and her husband Win, and Philip Chambers and his wife Ali to uphold her ocean-loving mission. She also leaves her four exceptional grandchildren, Cate and Thatcher Phypers, Jack and Mason Chambers, her nephew Gregory Mason, his wife Stephanie and their children Olivia and Conor — plus one granddog, Mabel Chambers. She is predeceased by her brother John P. Mason and his wife Carole, her former husband Charles O. Chambers and two granddogs, Bode Phypers and Leo Chambers.

In lieu of flowers (Gram hated to receive any kind of flora “without roots”), please make a donation to the Three Sisters Garden Project in Ipswich, MA. A service will be held at St. John the Baptist church in Essex, MA, June 26 at 11:00 a.m., and all are welcome.  To send a letter of condolence to the Chambers family please go to:  MorrisFH.com .

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