Mary-Low "Low" Taylor

Mary-Low “Low” Taylor, 95, of Burlington City, NJ, passed away peacefully at her home on Monday, August 25, 2025. She will be sorely missed by her loving family and friends.

Born in Boston, MA, in 1930, Low attended Bennington College, VT, from 1947 to 1950. That same year, she married Hilbert van Nydeck Schenck, Jr., and together they raised four children: Mary-Low “Lolly” Schenck, Helen “Linny” Ryce Schenck, Garret Schenck, and Grantley Taylor Schenck.

Low completed her BA in English at the State University of New York, Potsdam, in 1964, followed by an MS in Education in 1967. She then taught high school in Massena, NY, which was the start of her lifelong passion for teaching, especially English literature and writing. The family moved to Kingston, RI, in 1967 after which Low pursued additional advanced degrees, receiving an MA and Ph.D. (1976) in English literature at Brown University. At the Slade School, University of London, she earned a Diploma in Film Studies in 1978 (equivalent to an MA), and in later years, she received an MA in Teaching English as a Second Language in 1997 from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Until the end of her days, Low loved telling people she had four master’s and a Ph.D.!

Low taught at numerous colleges and universities, including Rhode Island College, Curry College, Lowell University, and Notre Dame College in Manchester, NH, where she served as a professor of English from 1978 to 1987. She was also a lecturer at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, a division of Tufts University in Boston, from 1987 to 1992. She then nominally retired.

Low and Nydeck separated in 1980 and divorced in 1983 when she married Manfred McDowell. They had no children and divorced amicably in 1996.

At different points in her life Low seemed to reinvent herself, finding new commitments and pursuits. She continued teaching well into her later years, educating students at Brookline’s Center for Adult Education in the late 1990s and 2000s, more or less for the fun of it. She also taught ESL students during winters spent in Costa Rica for fifteen years, only ending the yearly pilgrimage in 2012. A lifelong blood donor, Low began donating blood during WWII when she was 14 years old and proudly continued into her 90s. Low was also an active volunteer, ringing doorbells and making phone calls (3,800) for Elizabeth Warren when Warren campaigned to be a senator in 2012. For many of her students Low was a wonderful mentor, and, in the cases of the young single mothers she positively adopted at Notre Dame, possibly life-changing. In 2017, she moved from Brookline to Burlington, NJ, to live closer to her daughters.

One of the enduring constants in Low’s life was her love for Cuttyhunk Island, MA. She always said that she first encountered Cuttyhunk when cruising with her father as a child. After Low married Nydeck, she insisted they needed to visit the little island; and in 1954 and 1956 they cruised in together. The family started spending summers on Cuttyhunk, eventually purchasing the Ramos and Fears houses. Low was treasurer and bookkeeper for the Town of Gosnold from 1989 to 1993, and rented apartments in her houses. She loved introducing friends to the island, welcoming them with fresh bread, cookies, and bouquets of hydrangeas. More than anything she wanted her children and, eventually, her grandchildren to be able to spend time there. Many people on Cuttyhunk remember her legendary end-of-summer parties, to which the entire island was invited. In later years anyone who did her a service could be sure to be invited to Cuttyhunk; and indeed, in one of her last conversations, with the hospice admissions nurse, she was explaining where Cuttyhunk was located. Her family is grateful she was able to have that last summer on her dearly beloved island.

Low is survived by her four children and her daughters-in-law Catherine Ford and Nancy Stenberg, by eight grandchildren, and by seven great-grandchildren. There will be a memorial held on Cuttyhunk next summer. In lieu of flowers, donations in Low’s memory may be made to Buzzards Bay Coalition at https://www.savebuzzardsbay.org/ and to the Union of Concerned Scientists at https://support.ucs.org. 

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