IN LOVING MEMORY OF
Melissa Brown
Ambros
November 12, 1917 – December 12, 2014
Obituary
Hartland,VT
Melissa Brown Ambros, 97, a longtime resident of Hartland, died peacefully in her sleep on December 12, 2014, at the Cedar Hill Healthcare Center in Windsor, after a life of many challenges and extraordinary achievements. Clara Melissa, as she was called as a child, was born on November 12, 1917 in Chicago, Illinois to Arlisle Mather Brown, an English teacher, and Alfred Bruce Brown, an electrical engineer. Melissa launched an exceptional academic career in Montclair, New Jersey, where she and her sister Mary and brothers Bruce and Ted enjoyed an idyllic childhood. She graduated from high school at age 15 and pursued a degree in English Literature at Oberlin College, from which she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1939. The following three months she toured England by bicycle, a solo trip that launched her lifelong passion both for making and for touring beautiful gardens.
Returning to the U.S., Melissa entered Tobé-Coburn Fashion School in New York City on a full scholarship and a year later took a job as a stylist in a department store in Baltimore. Before long she met her first husband, Lt. Robert Lee Coughlin, at a dance at Fort Meade. In the next 9 years she and their children moved 13 times, including a year in occupied Germany, where Bob was stationed following campaigns with the Third Armored Division from northern France into Germany.
Returning from an inspection trip of Korea-bound troops, Lt. Colonel Coughlin died in a California plane crash in 1951. Melissa moved the family to a farm she had already purchased in Hartland, Vermont, where she hoped that Michael, her first born, a twin, would be safer while she explored treatment for a mystifying set of impairments, which much later would be called Autism. A friend of the family, Longin Ambros, came on leave from the Army whenever possible to help the family and to make repairs on the dilapidated house. In time, Melissa and Longin fell in love and were married in Windsor. Together they set about building a new life, designing and building a larger home for their growing family.
Using Mather, her mother's surname, Melissa launched her writing career in 1958 with the autobiography Rough Road Home, which traced the family's transformation from military dependents to independent dairy farmers embraced by a wide assortment of generous and caring neighbors in rural Vermont. Other books followed including One Summer In Between, Damian, and Emelie, as well as many short stories featured in magazines and television dramas.
In addition to preserving, freezing and storing all the meats, fruits, and vegetables the family raised together, Melissa made time to advocate for things that mattered to her, including better schools, property protection through zoning, and arms control. An active leader in the Hartland Committee for Peace, in 1983 Melissa journeyed to the Soviet Embassy in Washington, DC to personally request that a town in the pre-Glasnost Soviet Union be selected to be a sister community to Hartland.She explained that over 400 children and adults had assembled an array of gifts that conveyed the history and culture of Hartland and that these were all contained in a beautiful wooden box created by her husband. Her request was granted, and the project inspired many other communities to follow Hartland's example in a nation-wide movement that carried forward into a new era of US-Russian relations.
Melissa's many life long interests included the French language, which she studied at Dartmouth's ILEAD continuing education program; writing poems, painting in water color and oil, swimming, completing the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle in ink, hand crafting intricate embroidery. She kept detailed journals and sketches of her travels to France and Quebec, also to Greece, Wales, Spain and Switzerland. She tended beautiful and bountiful gardens and an impressive array of orchids and calla lilies in the greenhouse adjoining the sunny kitchen. She was a popular speaker about the art and life of the writer and encouraged many people who sent her samples of their work. She was a prolific reader and a long time member of Vermont Pen Women, where she found dear and enduring friendships. She was a lively and dedicated correspondent to many friends and relatives, often including packets of news stories and articles she hoped to discuss later. Books were everywhere in the house, and though Melissa was a great fan of libraries, her personal collection grew throughout her lifetime. In her late seventies she greatly enjoyed a stint of substitute teaching English and French at Hanover High School. For many years she served on the vestry of St. James Episcopal Church in Woodstock, where she added her lovely soprano voice to the choir; more recently she attended St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Windsor.
The family wishes to thank the staff of Stoughton House and of Cedar Hill Nursing Care, both in Windsor, for the devotion and dedication they brought to Melissa's care after she suffered a debilitating stroke.
Melissa is survived by eight children: Patrick. B. Coughlin of Sunapee, NH; Christopher C. Coughlin and wife Huguette of Springfield, VT; Catherine M. Coughlin and husband Randall B. Weill of Cape Elizabeth, ME; Maria van Beuren of N. Haverhill, NH;Victor R. Ambros and wife Rosalind Lee of Hanover, NH and Holden, MA; Theodore R. Ambros and wife Andrea of Hartland, VT;Elizabeth M. Ambros of Hartland VT; Thomas M. Ambros and wife Karen of Schenectady, NY. Melissa recently lost her husband of over 60 years, Longin B. Ambros. She was also pre-deceased by her first husband, Robert L. Coughlin, her eldest son Michael Coughlin, her grandson Brendan B. Coughlin, her sister Mary Evans, and her brothers Theodore Brown and Bruce Brown. Melissa is remembered lovingly by 8 nieces and nephews, 12 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren.
A public celebration of her life will be held Saturday, March 7th at 1:00 PM at the Universalist Unitarian Church, 8 Brownsville Road in Hartland Four Corners, VT. The Rev Paul Sawyer, Pastor will officiate. In lieu of flowers, Melissa's family would be grateful for any donations to:
The Melissa Ambros Memorial Fund, Hartland Public Library, PO Box 137, Hartland, Vermont 05048 or Aging in Hartland, PO Box 349, Hartland, VT 05048.
The Knight Funeral Home in Windsor assisted with the arrangements.
Melissa Brown Ambros, 97, a longtime resident of Hartland, died peacefully in her sleep on December 12, 2014, at the Cedar Hill Healthcare Center in Windsor, after a life of many challenges and extraordinary achievements. Clara Melissa, as she was called as a child, was born on November 12, 1917 in Chicago, Illinois to Arlisle Mather Brown, an English teacher, and Alfred Bruce Brown, an electrical engineer. Melissa launched an exceptional academic career in Montclair, New Jersey, where she and her sister Mary and brothers Bruce and Ted enjoyed an idyllic childhood. She graduated from high school at age 15 and pursued a degree in English Literature at Oberlin College, from which she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1939. The following three months she toured England by bicycle, a solo trip that launched her lifelong passion both for making and for touring beautiful gardens.
Returning to the U.S., Melissa entered Tobé-Coburn Fashion School in New York City on a full scholarship and a year later took a job as a stylist in a department store in Baltimore. Before long she met her first husband, Lt. Robert Lee Coughlin, at a dance at Fort Meade. In the next 9 years she and their children moved 13 times, including a year in occupied Germany, where Bob was stationed following campaigns with the Third Armored Division from northern France into Germany.
Returning from an inspection trip of Korea-bound troops, Lt. Colonel Coughlin died in a California plane crash in 1951. Melissa moved the family to a farm she had already purchased in Hartland, Vermont, where she hoped that Michael, her first born, a twin, would be safer while she explored treatment for a mystifying set of impairments, which much later would be called Autism. A friend of the family, Longin Ambros, came on leave from the Army whenever possible to help the family and to make repairs on the dilapidated house. In time, Melissa and Longin fell in love and were married in Windsor. Together they set about building a new life, designing and building a larger home for their growing family.
Using Mather, her mother's surname, Melissa launched her writing career in 1958 with the autobiography Rough Road Home, which traced the family's transformation from military dependents to independent dairy farmers embraced by a wide assortment of generous and caring neighbors in rural Vermont. Other books followed including One Summer In Between, Damian, and Emelie, as well as many short stories featured in magazines and television dramas.
In addition to preserving, freezing and storing all the meats, fruits, and vegetables the family raised together, Melissa made time to advocate for things that mattered to her, including better schools, property protection through zoning, and arms control. An active leader in the Hartland Committee for Peace, in 1983 Melissa journeyed to the Soviet Embassy in Washington, DC to personally request that a town in the pre-Glasnost Soviet Union be selected to be a sister community to Hartland.She explained that over 400 children and adults had assembled an array of gifts that conveyed the history and culture of Hartland and that these were all contained in a beautiful wooden box created by her husband. Her request was granted, and the project inspired many other communities to follow Hartland's example in a nation-wide movement that carried forward into a new era of US-Russian relations.
Melissa's many life long interests included the French language, which she studied at Dartmouth's ILEAD continuing education program; writing poems, painting in water color and oil, swimming, completing the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle in ink, hand crafting intricate embroidery. She kept detailed journals and sketches of her travels to France and Quebec, also to Greece, Wales, Spain and Switzerland. She tended beautiful and bountiful gardens and an impressive array of orchids and calla lilies in the greenhouse adjoining the sunny kitchen. She was a popular speaker about the art and life of the writer and encouraged many people who sent her samples of their work. She was a prolific reader and a long time member of Vermont Pen Women, where she found dear and enduring friendships. She was a lively and dedicated correspondent to many friends and relatives, often including packets of news stories and articles she hoped to discuss later. Books were everywhere in the house, and though Melissa was a great fan of libraries, her personal collection grew throughout her lifetime. In her late seventies she greatly enjoyed a stint of substitute teaching English and French at Hanover High School. For many years she served on the vestry of St. James Episcopal Church in Woodstock, where she added her lovely soprano voice to the choir; more recently she attended St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Windsor.
The family wishes to thank the staff of Stoughton House and of Cedar Hill Nursing Care, both in Windsor, for the devotion and dedication they brought to Melissa's care after she suffered a debilitating stroke.
Melissa is survived by eight children: Patrick. B. Coughlin of Sunapee, NH; Christopher C. Coughlin and wife Huguette of Springfield, VT; Catherine M. Coughlin and husband Randall B. Weill of Cape Elizabeth, ME; Maria van Beuren of N. Haverhill, NH;Victor R. Ambros and wife Rosalind Lee of Hanover, NH and Holden, MA; Theodore R. Ambros and wife Andrea of Hartland, VT;Elizabeth M. Ambros of Hartland VT; Thomas M. Ambros and wife Karen of Schenectady, NY. Melissa recently lost her husband of over 60 years, Longin B. Ambros. She was also pre-deceased by her first husband, Robert L. Coughlin, her eldest son Michael Coughlin, her grandson Brendan B. Coughlin, her sister Mary Evans, and her brothers Theodore Brown and Bruce Brown. Melissa is remembered lovingly by 8 nieces and nephews, 12 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren.
A public celebration of her life will be held Saturday, March 7th at 1:00 PM at the Universalist Unitarian Church, 8 Brownsville Road in Hartland Four Corners, VT. The Rev Paul Sawyer, Pastor will officiate. In lieu of flowers, Melissa's family would be grateful for any donations to:
The Melissa Ambros Memorial Fund, Hartland Public Library, PO Box 137, Hartland, Vermont 05048 or Aging in Hartland, PO Box 349, Hartland, VT 05048.
The Knight Funeral Home in Windsor assisted with the arrangements.
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