Marcia Ann Van Dyke Bradsell died peacefully at her home in Boothbay Harbor, Dec. 13, 2022.

Marcia was born at home on June 19, 1944. Her parents, Gerrit and Johanna Van Dyke, ran a celery farm in rural Hamilton, Michigan. She came from a big family encompassing three brothers and three sisters. All her siblings lived their lives in Michigan; Marcia was the family member with wanderlust. Marcia was brought up in the Reformed Church in America (RCA), and she considered this her home denomination throughout her life, even when attending – and active in – churches affiliated with other denominations.

After high school, Marcia enrolled in the Pine Rest Christian Hospital School of Nursing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where in 1964 she graduated with a degree in psychiatric nursing and went on to serve as “charge nurse” on the adolescent unit. She also enrolled at Grand Valley State College to continue her pursuit of a bachelor’s degree. Marcia left Pine Rest to be a nurse and case worker at the Ottawa County Community Mental Health Services in Holland, Michigan. There, while she was establishing a network of adolescent drop-in centers, Kenneth joined the staff. They started dating and married a year later. Together they raised three children and shared nine homes while following Ken’s peripatetic ministerial career. Throughout, Marcia was loving, caring, and patient to a fault.

The first move on their life journey brought them to New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1971, when Ken entered theological seminary. Over the next 11 years, they moved two more times as Ken served parishes on Long Island, New Jersey, and Albany, New York. Throughout this period, Marcia used her expertise in social work to hold jobs in personnel placement in New York City’s financial district, and with the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, New Jersey, while also overseeing the household, raising their children, and managing Ken’s frequent job-related absences. And it was while living on Long Island Sound that Marcia became an avid sailor.

In 1984, the family moved southwest of Chicago to Crete, Illinois, where Ken joined the denominational staff of the RCA. At the same time, Marcia became director of children’s education at Palos Heights Reformed Church. She also attended training events at Western Theological Seminary in Michigan to become the first of a team of denominational trainers of the “Young Children and Worship” religious education program. She subsequently trained pastors and laity and introduced this curriculum to churches in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, New York City, and Connecticut, as well as the Virgin Islands. In 1987, during the civil war in Nicaragua, she served as a member of a peace delegation from the Reformed Church to that country. She went on to lead women’s pilgrimages for justice in Mexico. It was also during this period that Marcia completed her bachelor’s degree at Governor’s State University in Illinois.

After four years in Illinois, Ken’s administrative career brought the family back to Holland, Michigan. There, Marcia continued her work with “Young Children and Worship,” and also found time to direct the “Higher Horizons” program, a youth development program at nearby Hope College, where she recruited, trained and supervised college students working with at-risk children and youth in the community.

Then, in 1995, the family moved to Ridgewood, New Jersey, and Marcia returned to personnel recruiting work before earning her teaching certificate to become a full-time substitute teacher. She came naturally to this work as, earlier, she had found time to home-school son Mark during his final high school years.

Throughout Ken’s career, Marcia resisted the traditional role of minister’s wife; instead, she preferred to think of herself as an active member of the congregation but one without any special position. She served as Senior Elder at Hope Church in Holland, Michigan and as an Elder at the Community Church of Upper Ridgewood, New Jersey. Marcia also served for six years on the Commission for Worship for the Reformed Church in America. When Ken was working at the RCA headquarters offices in New York City, they joined the nearby Marble Collegiate Church. Marcia took on the responsibility of placing on yellow ribbons the names of all U.S. service personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq and, following worship, attaching these to the fence surrounding the church on New York’s Fifth Avenue. This ministry involved at least two trips into the city from Ridgewood each week to install new ribbons and to make sure existing ribbons were in good condition.

Their 20 years in Ridgewood proved to be the only time Marcia and Ken remained in a house long enough for it to need to be repainted! Indeed, Marcia considered her marriage a great adventure. She never knew where the family was going next but she was always ready for the change. That included their most international adventure, which took place in 2015. After Ken officially retired from the RCA, the couple moved their belongings to their just-purchased home on Linekin Bay in Boothbay Harbor, and then left for the Middle East, where Ken accepted the role of lead pastor for the parishes of the Protestant Church in Oman. It was two years later that they returned to Maine. Once here full-time, they quickly became active members of the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor, where Marcia chaired the Missions Committee. They also embarked on an extensive renovation of their home, which was just finished last April.

Marcia leaves her beloved husband Kenneth, with whom she shared almost 52 years of marriage. She leaves three wonderful children and their families: Adam, with wife Jenny Bierman and grandsons Sam and Beau (Old Greenwich, CT); Mark (Stowe, VT); and Navy Lt. Cdr. Rachel with husband Jason and granddaughter Deanna (Pearl Harbor, HI), as well as brand-new baby granddaughter Harper expected this month, who Marcia was looking forward to meeting in March. Marcia is also survived by two sisters, Phyllis Walters (Hamilton, MI) and Artie Vander Woude (Zeeland, MI), two sisters-in-law, as well as several nieces and nephews. Marcia is sorely missed by canine Gus, the latest in a long line of rescue dogs she mothered throughout her life.

Arrangements are by Hall Funeral Home in Boothbay. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Marcia’s memory to the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor Mission Committee or the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City. A memorial service will take place at the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor in early 2023. At Marcia’s request, interment is planned at the Marble Collegiate Church columbarium.