Marsha R. Coder

Northborough, MA Marsha Robbins Coder, a long-time resident of the Silver Spring, MD and Northborough, MD areas, passed away Monday, the 6th of May at UMASS Memorial Hospital at age 64. Born April 9, 1949 to Monroe and Betty Ann Robbins in Washington DC, Marsha was proudly the eldest of five children. She was always looked up to by her brothers and sisters, forming special bonds with each of them that will never be forgotten. Marsha married her high school sweetheart in 1972 and went on to expand her family by adopting a daughter in 1980, then another daughter in 2001. Over the years, she opened her heart and her family to those in her life, not by blood, but by love. It was this love that brought three additional sons, and then two grandchildren, into her family. Having formed a passion for teaching, Marsha received a BS in Elementary Education from the University of Maryland in 1972. She went on to become an outstanding elementary school teacher in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New Hampshire, before teaching at the middle school level in the Douglas Massachusetts school system, where she retired in 2008 after 15 years. In her combined 29 year career she left lasting impressions on many hundreds of students. She was most famously known for her Stock Market, Peanut and Million Dollar projects, as well as her well-stocked candy drawer, which solidified her place in the hearts and the sweet tooth of hundreds of students for decades. Marsha was a well-traveled woman, both domestically and across North America. Though not an avid swimmer, she encouraged a love of the ocean to her children and grandchildren. She could often be found hunting for shells along beaches, a trait inherited from her father and shared with later generations. When shelled out, one could find Marsha sitting in the shade, wrapped up in one of her favorite romance novels or plucking her eyebrows. She was a woman who appreciated a good bargain, was funny without necessarily trying to be and never met a stranger who wasn't a potential friend. She remembered everyone's favorite drinks and foods and made sure her house always had plenty of them. She relished watching her "gorgeous growing grandchildren" and always came to visit with a heart full of love and a car full of gifts. Her favorite hobbies included birding and gardening with her husband, crafts, shopping with her daughters and recalling memorable stories of her childhood with her siblings, parents and extended family. She was a Diet Coke connoisseur and always had a purse filled with bubblegum, an array of tools and anything one might need to survive an apocalypse. She was and always will be a truly remarkably caring woman, always putting others first and expecting nothing in return. Throughout her life, Marsha struggled with health issues, but never complained and always had a smile on her face. All who survive her love her more than words can ever express. She will be thought of every day with the joy of having had the privilege of knowing her and the sadness of her being taken too soon. Marsha is survived by her husband of 41 years, William Coder, of Northborough, MA, her parents Monroe and Betty Ann Robbins, of Palm Bay, FL, her siblings, Leslie Roche, of Millington, MD, Richard Robbins, of Cherry Hill, NJ, Jack Robbins, of Phoenix, AZ and Laurie Robbins, of Oakland, CA. Her two daughters Chrystie Coder Caldarella and Kym Coder-Joyce, as well as "sons of the heart" are all of Odenton, MD: Michael Caldarella, Mark Joyce and Christopher Carnesi; so too are her two grandchildren: Riley Jacob Coder Caldarella and Eleanor Deborah Marsha Joyce. Her godson Jesse Roche of Richmond, VA is among her many nieces and nephews. Services are private. An online guestbook will be available at Mercadante Funeral Home http://mercadantefuneral.com . Memorial charitable donations: Donate Life America (http://donatelife.net/give-to-dla/) or Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America; see www.ccfa.org.