Dr. Margaret W. Curtis, 75, of Greensboro, NC formerly of Tyaskin, MD departed this life on Monday, January 24, 2022, at home surrounded by her loving family members and in prayer with her pastor. Born in Philadelphia on April 9, 1946, to the late Marian B. Williams, Theodore Wright and raised by Alexander Williams.

Margaret was a lifelong student and educator. She attended Wicomico County public schools and graduated from Salisbury High School where she served as senior class president. She attended Howard University where she earned bachelor and graduate degrees before earning her Doctorate in genetics in 1976. During her distinguished academic career, she started out as a secondary school teacher in Washington DC, teaching at Coolidge, McKinley and Academy of Notre Dame High schools before moving on to teach at universities around the world, including universities in Hohenfels, and Nuremburg, West Germany. She later pursued her love of teaching as a professor at Fitchburg State in Massachusetts, Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C. and Bennett College in Greensboro. As a college administrator she also served as a professor and Provost at Albion College in Albion, Michigan and Dean of Students at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. She worked closely with the National Science Foundation (NSF) as both an evaluator of college programs promoting STEM programs for minorities and the initiator of the NSF funded Minority Access to Research Careers Program and Biomedical Research Support Program for women in science at Bennett College.

Left to forever cherish her memory are her loving sisters, Patricia Dees, Arlene Collins-Day (William) and Tina Dixon; adoring nephews and nieces, Jessica (Taron), Aaron, Learned (Amina), Michael (Andriel), Almena (Rodney), Lauren (Reier); great and great great nieces and nephews; Asha, Alyse, Marcellus, Chloe, Aaliyah, Jordyn, Noelle, Kalani, Justin, Dune and Darwin; cousins, Jermel (Vinely), Theresa Jefferson; a dear life long companion, Dr. William C. Curtis; close friends, Clifford Curtis, Joan Williams-Thomas, Dorothy Colson; and a host of other cousins, relatives, and friends, whom she loved dearly and who loved her dearly.

A service honoring her life will be held on Saturday, January 29, 2022 at 1:00 PM, at Cassie Coote-Brown Memorial Chapel, 909 East Market Street, Greensboro with a viewing a half hour prior. A second service will be Saturday, February 12, 2022 at 11:00 AM, at Lewis N. Watson Funeral Home, 1618 West Road, Salisbury, MD, with a viewing one hour prior.

All services will be streamed live from the Funeral Home Websites.

Interment will be at Freedman’s Methodist Church Cemetery in Tyaskin, Maryland

Professional services are entrusted to Brown’s Funeral Home and Lewis N. Watson Funeral Home, PA.

In lieu of flowers being sent, please consider directing donations, in her honor, to Bennett College, or St. Francis Episcopal Church in Greensboro.