Mary Schreiner Baird
May 11, 1941 - December 22, 2024
 

Mary Schreiner Baird left her body and passed on from this life at age (83) on December 22, 2024. She is survived by Ed Hunka her lifelong partner, her sister Barbara Baird, her two sons, Christopher Bugbee (Katie) and Geoffrey Bugbee (Payal), their children, Avery, Halen, and Kian, her adopted daughter, Colleen Roberts, and Nemo, her little dog.

Born in 1941 to William Baird and Martha Schreiner, Mary’s early passions included riding her horse and playing the piano. She lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, through her Mt. Lebanon High School years (1959) after which she resided in several places until 1978 when she settled in her Cleveland home for her remaining years.

Mary’s formal education includes a BS degree in English & Psychology at Allegheny College (1963), a Master’s degree in Special Education at Indiana University (1972), and a Master’s degree in Adult Learning at Cleveland State University (1996). In addition, Mary lived in and grew to appreciate an unfamiliar culture serving as a teacher in the US Peace Corps in Chumphon, Thailand, from 1963 to 1965 with her first husband John Bugbee, and again returning in 1969 with their first born son, under contract with the Thai Department of Education to serve on the faculty of a teacher training college in Phitsanulok, Thailand.

For seventeen years, Mary wore a hard hat and carried a ladder for Ohio Bell (Ameritech) working mostly outside, spending her years at the phone company as a Repair and Systems Technician. 

By her mid-thirties, Mary had survived many difficult months as the first and only woman on Ohio Bell’s payphone installation crew. To defend her job rights, she relied on union grievances and became actively involved in the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 4304 as a Union Steward, writer, and newsletter editor of Crosstalk.

As a long-time feminist and labor activist, Mary’s greatest resource was her network of support. By 1979, when the need for an advocacy and support group emerged from a three-way living room discussion, Mary helped launch Hard Hatted Women (HHW)—a support group that soon developed into a successful nonprofit organization with a mission to promote economic empowerment by ensuring equal opportunity for women in non-traditional employment. Mary actively worked for the organization through the 1980s—writing grants, designing career awareness projects for Cleveland elementary schools, as well as editing and writing articles for the newsletter Riveting News (HHW). She served as HHW’s first Board Chair, helping with planning programs and setting up the office. In 1981, Mary and others organized a ‘Rosie the Riveter Reunion,’ honoring women who worked in nontraditional jobs during World War II.

In 1989, Mary received the CWA/Ohio Bell “Women of Career Excellence” award for leadership on behalf of working women.  

Deeply loved by many, Mary was described by a friend as “tiny in stature, but enormous in insights and spirituality.” Always exuding kindness and compassion, her consistently forward-looking, cheerful, and positive nature influenced others to see the bright side of life.

Mary stayed in close touch and remained lifelong friends with her junior high school and college “besties” as well as her brother, sister and cousins. Community and social connection remained a priority throughout her life. During the Covid pandemic, she became active in several online discussion and study groups. 

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For much of her adult life, Mary was an avid practitioner and instructor of yoga, living by the ‘teach to learn’ motto. Through her last decades of life, she pursued the study of yoga for healthy aging and was very passionate about Yin Yoga for accessing deep openings, agility, and the free-flow of energy in aging bodies. In 2006, she traveled to India with her fellow Atma Center yogis to deepen her practice.

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Over the course of her life, Mary loved immersing herself in nature. In her eighties, she served as a Cleveland Metroparks Trail Ambassador, volunteering to assist and greet park visitors of all ages.

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Mary insisted that she learn to know herself well along with the most important lessons from life itself. She studied the Bhagavad Gita and also resonated deeply with Buddhist teachings—Pema Chödrön’s works being among her favorites. Throughout her eight decades of life, focused writing and journaling were among her cherished vehicles of therapy and self-discovery. Mary was very devoted to a biweekly women’s writing group in which she pursued ten years of self-taught memoir writing and poetry.

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After Mary's Celebration of Life gathering on May 2, 2025, this URL - www.maryschreinerbaird.com - will be a home for her poetry, writing, and images.

Hari Om!

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