Meredith “Merry” Knowlton, 82. died June 24 at St. Andrews Village, Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Family and friends were by her side during the past year offering support during her illness, and were bedside with her as she peacefully took her last breath.

Merry made the most of her life and enriched all the causes and projects she took on. Born the daughter of Robert W. McLaughlin and Katherine Thurber McLaughlin, she grew up on Old Greenwich, Connecticut, graduating from Rosemary Hall. When her father became chair of the School of Architecture at Princeton University the family moved to New Jersey. Merry graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1956, and took a job with the Aerophysics Department at Princeton University where she met Marcus P. Knowlton, and married him in 1958. Truly, she had met a fellow traveler, and they explored the world together for nearly 60 years.

Mark and Merry took on an old farm house in Princeton, and became a faculty couple who fed and counseled his students, and their home was social central for all their friends. They were among a group of Princeton families who discovered the island of Culebra as a vacation hideaway, happily sharing it with all comers.

Merry was never idle: she had a career in money management with Paine-Webber and served on the board of the YMCA and volunteered for the Red Cross. Merry could always find time for friends, reading, tennis, needlework or music.

In retirement, the Knowltons enjoyed winters on Culebra, building their hilltop home, Cerro Feliz; their summer home was her third-generation family cottage at Newagen on Southport Island in Maine. Merry was part of the local historical society and the needlework group at the Southport Library (where she also volunteered), but her real interest and passion was the Boothbay Region Land Trust, to which she gave her talents and energies. During her last months she enjoyed designing a wildflower garden for Oak Park Farm, a property she had worked diligently to bring under Land Trust protection.

Merry will be missed by the many friends who shared her keen analysis of political matters, her love of the world of nature, especially flowers, wild and garden, her engaging humor, and love of world cultures and history. Family members who mourn her are her husband Marcus P. Knowlton, daughter Laurie, son Marcus, and beloved grandchildren Caleb and Skye, brother Robert T. McLaughlin and his son Kim and daughter Leslie, Thurber cousins, and Maine Coon cat Molly.

A celebratory gathering will be held at Oak Point Farm, Boothbay Harbor, on August 12 at 4 p.m. Gatherings in Princeton and on Culebra will be in the future.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the Boothbay Region Land Trust.