Martha Collette Mead
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Martha Collette Mead, 67, passed away on July 31st in her home in Myrtle Beach, SC, after a fifteen month long battle with brain cancer. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, where she met the love of her life, Raymond Mead, at the age of sixteen. Martha was a dance major at Adelphi University, with the ambition and talent to become a professional ballerina until an injury sidelined those dreams. But as with most things in Martha's life, she didn't let that stop her from doing what she loved. In 1972 she began teaching dance to children, and in doing so, discovered her profound love and talent for helping other people. If she could teach kids to dance, perhaps she could help other children do even more extraordinary things.
In 1979 she graduated from Downstate Medical Center with a Master's Degree in Occupational Therapy and began her 36 year long career working with students all over Dutchess and Putnam Counties, helping them to read, write, talk and even walk. She was an underrecognized pioneer in the field of Occupational Therapy and in the development and advancement of Assistive Technologies. If a child needed a tool or a framework or a language to help them grow, she would find it. Or invent one if she had to.
Martha is survived by her best friend and loving husband, Raymond Mead (of Myrtle Beach), her son and daughter-in-law Kevin Mead and Katherine DiSavino Mead (of Los Angeles), her brother, Stephen Dutka (of Poughkeepsie), and more nieces, nephews and grand nieces and grand nephews than it would be possible to count, all of whom she loved with every fiber of her being.
A Funeral Mass will be held 2:00 PM Thursday August 5, 2021 at St. Michael Catholic Church, Garden City, SC. The family will receive friends 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM Wednesday August 4, 2021 at Burroughs Funeral Home, Murrells Inlet, SC.
To send an online condolence, please visit https://www.burroughsfh.com/obituary/Martha-Mead
Burroughs Funeral Home & Cremation Services of Murrells Inlet, SC (843.651.1440) is assisting the family.