Mary Ann Harrison Fitz-Hugh Mace of Poughkeepsie, 96, left this life peacefully on Sunday, December 18th, 2022, at the Lutheran Care Center at Poughkeepsie.

She is survived by her daughter Sarah Mace of Saratoga Springs, NY, her son Thomas Mace, her daughter-in-law Kathleen Caster Mace, and her grandchildren Peter Mace and Andrew Mace, all of Niwot, CO. She was predeceased by her husband, Professor Dean Tolle Mace (1922-1999).

Born in the Philadelphia area, Mary Ann lost her mother at the tender age of 12, but was able to thrive in studies and sports at The Madeira School in McLean, VA. She attended Vassar College, where she experienced the unusual circumstances of life at the college during WWII. She graduated with honors in 1947 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society. She loved Vassar, but little knew that she would return to the campus in a few years to become a lifelong member of the Vassar College community

She met her future husband Dean Mace, a beneficiary of the G.I. Bill after his WWII military service, when both were graduate students at Columbia University in New York. The couple were married in 1950. After spending two years in Saint Louis where both taught at Washington University, Professor Mace accepted an offer from the Vassar College Department of English and they moved to Vassar, where they were house fellows for a number of years, before moving to a house in Arlington where they raised their family.

During the 1970s, Mary Ann Mace served as Assistant to the Dean of Studies at Vassar, where she coordinated the college's Junior Year Abroad and other transfer programs. She liked to tell how she had arranged for the future actress Meryl Streep, then a Vassar undergraduate, to spend a semester at a different institution to diversify her acting skills.

Mrs. Mace's intellectual interests included the study of Latin and Greek languages and literature. She and her husband traveled extensively in Europe and lived there for longer periods when her husband was on sabbatical leave. Both were avid opera goers.

She spent the last 23 years of her life as a widow, but her life was enriched by the pleasures of visits with her children and grandchildren, the company of her friends, and her continuing interest in languages and music. She was beloved by those who knew her and will be remembered and missed as a highly intelligent, kind, humane, cheerful and helpful mother, grandmother, and friend.

A memorial and remembrance will be held at the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery on Friday, January 6, 2023 at 1PM.