GORHAM – Muriel Freeman Brockway died Monday, Nov. 7, 2005, at the age of 96, in Gorham, where she had made her home since 1998. Muriel was born March 1, 1909, in Hyde Park, Mass., a daughter of George Warren Freeman and Lucy Louise Freeman of West Gray. Known as Nana Brockway by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she was a very special person who had the gift of making a child feel as though he or she was the shining star in her universe. Some of her happiest memories from childhood were of the summers she spent at the Freeman Farm in West Gray with her maternal grandmother “Grammy George” and her many first cousins. In March her cousin, Alice Freeman Muchnic, 98, joined in celebrating Muriel’s 96th birthday and reminiscing about those wonderful summers. Mrs. Brockway graduated from Windham High School in 1927, the University of Maine Orono in 1932 and was a Graduate Fellow in German at the University in 1933, teaching that language to pre-medical students. Muriel was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Societies, and Alpha Omicron Pi sorority. On June 7, 1933, she married Philip Judd Brockway in Waterville. After her husband died in 1980, Muriel’s family presumed she would give up the extensive vegetable and flower gardens they had created together for many years. However, Muriel continued up to age 89 to recreate those gardens with the assistance of friends and family. Her greatest joy was besting a neighbor in the annual race for earliest or biggest or tastiest tomato. For over 60 years Muriel was a resident of Orono, maintaining an active and independent lifestyle. She was a member of the Orono Methodist Church and was affiliated with several other civic organizations in the area. For several years Mrs. Brockway was employed at the General Alumni Office at the University of Maine in Orono. Muriel is survived by one son, Richard Judd Brockway and his wife, Margaret Murch Brockway, of Amherst, N.H. and Bayside; two daughters, Elizabeth Brockway Nevers and her husband, Richard, of Webster, Mass. and Fort Pierce, Fla. and Pamelia Brockway Adams and her husband, David, of Yarmouth; seven grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. A memorial service in Orono celebrating Muriel’s life will be held in the spring. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent in her memory to the Philip J. and Muriel F. Brockway Scholarship Fund, University of Maine, Crossland Alumni Center, Orono, ME 04469.
MURIEL FREEMAN BROCKWAY
