Obituaries

-- Lauren Wiseman

Marcia P. SwardEducator, Mathematician

Marcia P. Sward, 69, deputy executive director of environmental education at the Audubon Naturalist Society in Chevy Chase, died Sept. 21 at the Washington Home hospice. She had kidney cancer.

Dr. Sward had worked at the Audubon Naturalist Society since 2004. Previously, she was the senior director for education and environment at the National Environmental Education Foundation.

In 1985, she helped create the Mathematical Sciences Education Board, which is part of the National Research Council's Center for Education. She served as executive director until 1989.

She was the executive director of the Mathematical Association of America from 1990 to 1999.

Marcia Ruth Peterson was born in Maywood, Ill. She earned her bachelor's degree in mathematics from Vassar College in 1961. She received a master's degree in 1963 and doctorate in mathematics in 1967, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

She moved to the Washington region in 1968 to work as a mathematics professor at Trinity College in the District. She served as department chairwoman from 1979 to 1980.

Her marriages to Gilbert Sward and Lynn Doherty ended in divorce.

Survivors include two children from her first marriage, Douglas Sward of Columbia and David Sward of Kensington; and two brothers.

-- Lauren Wiseman