Margaret Hemp

Nov. 10, 1933 – Oct. 8, 2016

Margaret Missett Collins Hemp passed away Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016, at Messenger House, Bainbridge Island, Washington.

Margaret was born Nov. 10, 1933, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Walton Robert Collins and Margaret Missett Collins. She attended Sacred Heart Academy in Philadelphia and the School of the Holy Child in Suffern, New York. She graduated from Rosemont College in 1955 and received her degree with honors in liberal arts from Bishop Fulton Sheen. In 1957, she earned her master’s degree in psychology/education from Temple University in Philadelphia.

She taught in Philadelphia, and in 1958 opened a school for disabled and disadvantaged youth in Nassau, the Bahamas, as a mission of the Archdiocese of Nassau.

On Sept. 10, 1960, she was joined in holy matrimony to William Henry Hemp, son of Norman and Mary Wendler Hemp, in the Church of the Presentation, Overbrook, Pennsylvania, presided over by Bishop Charles Coristan.

As a couple, they moved first to Princeton, New Jersey, and then to New York City, where Margaret served on staff for the Kennedy Center for Children.

With the birth of her first son, William Jr., and her second son, Brendan, she turned her energy to full-time motherhood and adopted three additional children, Joseph, Christopher and Peter (deceased).

The family moved to Point Lookout, New York, in 1970 and raised their children there until 2011, when William and Margaret moved to Bainbridge Island, Washington.

She is survived by her husband, William Henry; her four children, William, Brendan, Joseph and Christopher; her older brother, Walton Robert Collins of Notre Dame, Indiana; her younger brother, David Jarrett Collins of Duxbury, Massachusetts; and four grandchildren.

A memorial mass will be celebrated on her 83rd birthday at noon, Nov. 10, 2016, at the Rosemont College chapel, Rosemont, Pennsylvania.

In memory of Margaret, donations can be made to the St. Francis Breadline in New York City: www.stfrancisbreadline.org.