Joyce Spear Marshall

July 28, 1929 - April 13, 2022

Rye, NH - The children of Joyce Spear Marshall would like to share with you that she has lifted her wings in flight. She passed peacefully on Wednesday, April 13, 2022 as the blue birds fed outside her window in Rye, NH. Born on July 28, 1929 in Wellesley, MA, Joyce was the daughter of Roger Eliot Spear and Gladys Robbins Spear. She graduated from Wellesley High School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After graduation, she married Charles M. Marshall. Over the next thirty years, they became a family of six living first in Miami Shores, FL and then Simsbury, CT. Joyce was a true educator and ardent lover of nature’s world. She spent her life as an active volunteer and leader in many organizations: YWCA, Girl Scouts of America, Junior League, Roaring Brook Nature Center, Hartford Audubon, Children’s Museum Pre-school, Simsbury Garden Club, The Nature Conservancy, UNH Marine Docent, Great Bay Discovery Center, Gundalow Company, UNH Sea Chantey Singers, and NH Audubon to name a few. She cultivated long-lasting friendships from all aspects of her life. In her spare time, Joyce could be found in her gardens with a trowel, nurturing an injured bird with her granddaughters, advocating for the American Wolves in the West, walking with her family in their beloved New Hampshire woodlands of T.O.N.E, or anywhere around the world, always with birding binoculars in hand. Most of all, Joyce cherished her family. She is survived by her two daughters Elizabeth (Marshall) Weaver and husband Richard of Stratham, NH and Sue (Marshall) Yamamoto of Nashua, NH; two sons, Charles M. Marshall, Jr. and wife, Elizabeth, of No. Andover, MA and Edward Marshall and wife, Michele, of Stewartstown, PA; six granddaughters, two step-grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. The family would like to express their deep gratitude to the wonderful staff at Webster at Rye, who enriched Joyce’s life over the past six years. In honoring Joyce’s wishes, a family graveside service will be held in Wellesley, MA. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Great Bay Discovery Center where she educated children about the ocean for over 20 years. Donations can be made online at https://greatbay.org/give/ by noting her name or by check to Great Bay Stewards, 89 Depot Rd, Greenland, 03840 with her name noted.