Mary L. Silverstein, longtime English teacher, college mentor, and master gardener, has died at 92

Mary L. Silverstein, 92, formerly of Philadelphia, retired high school English teacher, former instructor at Community College of Philadelphia, student teacher mentor, and celebrated master gardener, died Sunday, April 13, of complications from Alzheimer’s disease at her home in Lafayette Hill.

A 1950 graduate of Philadelphia High School for Girls, Ms. Silverstein earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education at Temple and Villanova Universities, and taught English, reading, and writing for more than 50 years.

She developed an innovative reading lab at Oak Lane Day School in Blue Bell and worked with students on all levels at William Penn High School for Girls, Robert E. Lamberton High School, and other schools in the School District of Philadelphia from the 1950s until her retirement in 1997.

She also taught English at Community College of Philadelphia until 2017 and served as a student teacher mentor for graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania. She helped establish the Philadelphia Writing Project with Penn in 1986 and made “amazing contributions,” a former colleague said.

She was an expert on the instruction of students, teachers, and administrators. She created student support programs for families and organized writing seminars and workshops for the public. She was also active with Penn’s Gear Up scholastic tutoring programs.

She was adept, former students said, at improving all levels of readers and writers, and many stayed in touch with her over the decades. They gathered to celebrate her 70th, 80th, and 90th birthdays in Philadelphia and Lafayette Hill. She was especially close to a group of women who bonded years ago as they worked on the school yearbook.

She was adamant that her students write something every day, her daughters said, and she always seemed to have a stack of papers nearby that needed grading. In 1997, she was one of 22 nominees for school district Teacher of the Year and the only nominee from the Overbrook cluster.

“She helped many kids who were passed over,” said her daughter Deb. “They just really dug her. She was ahead of the curve.”

Away from the classroom, Ms. Silverstein earned master gardener recognition and was a longtime member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. The brick walkways, wide benches, and lush landscaping of her expansive English garden on Pelham Road in Mount Airy were celebrated for years and featured on the Horticultural Society’s home tour in the 1960s.

Later, she was a judge of small gardens in the society’s annual competitions. “She was always a spitfire,” her daughter said. “She was independent and strong-willed. She continually affected people everywhere she went.”

Mary Louise Levengood was born June 2, 1932, in Philadelphia. Her parents were musicians and music teachers, and she became a longtime supporter and docent for the Philadelphia Orchestra.

She told the Chestnut Hill Local in 2022: “Toward the end of our junior year at Girls’ High, a sort of gang of seven had formed. … As the years passed, we all kept in touch, attending one another’s weddings, welcoming lots of babies, and there was a class reunion almost every year until the turn of the century. … Those were very good days.”

Ms. Silverstein loved dogs, rode horses when she was young, studied biology at Temple, and considered work as a veterinarian. She married Harry Silverstein when she was 20, and they had daughters Jane, Deb, and Karol, and lived in Philadelphia and briefly in New Mexico.

After a divorce, she moved from Mount Airy to Germantown and later lived in Overbook Park, Chestnut Hill, and Lafayette Hill. Her former husband died earlier.

Ms. Silverstein was an avid reader and traveler, and a member of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society at Villanova. She visited Japan, Antarctica, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. “Mary’s travels are legendary,” her daughters said in a tribute.

She supported several charities and donated her body through the Humanities Gift Registry. Her daughter Karol called her a “role model” and said: “She is my intellectual, moral, and emotional North Star.”

In addition to her daughters, Ms. Silverstein is survived by a brother and other relatives.

A celebration of her life is to be held later.

Donations in her name may be made to the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1 S. Broad St., 14th Floor, Philadelphia, Pa. 19107; the Philadelphia Writing Project, Box 30941, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104; and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 100 N. 20th St., Suite 405, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103.