Martha Michal Wood Schroeder

Martha Michal Wood Schroeder died at her home on April 21, 2024 from rapidly progressing ALS. She was called Mike by her friends, Martha by her co-workers and Doo by her southern family. She was born in 1937, to Doctors Frank and Martha Wood. She grew up in North Carolina and considered Edenton her childhood home. Her favorite memories growing up were those of summers spent at her family’s beach cottage in Nag’s Head. After finishing high school at Salem Academy, she moved north and graduated from Wellesley College, and then Harvard School of Education. While in school, she met Peter Schroeder, and in 1958, they married and settled in Medfield, Massachusetts where they raised their two children and she taught elementary school in Sharon, Massachusetts for over 25 years.

All her life, she loved gardening, traveling, listening to classical music, and experimenting with cooking healthy food to the benefit of her friends and family. She and Pete both retired in 1988 and moved onto their sailboat. They spent 4 years sailing the eastern seaboard and down to the Bahamas. After returning to land, they moved to Lakeville, Massachusetts where she devoted herself to studying botany, advocating for protection of ecosystems, and promoting the growing of native plant species. After Pete died, she moved to North Bennington, Vermont where she continued her environmental advocacy. She lives on in the plants she has gifted to friends and family members, culminating this past year in replacing the front lawn of her beloved gentleman friend, Al Short, with a garden of native plants.

She was predeceased by her husband, Peter Schroeder. She leaves behind her son Richard Schroeder and his wife Susan Lindholm of Andover, Massachusetts, her daughter Avery Wood MD and her husband, Ned Wood of North Bennington, Vermont, her grandchildren Lindi Schroeder, Sarah Wood, and Rimmele Wood; and her brother Frank Wood Jr. of Bennington, Vermont.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in her honor may be sent to the Native Plant Trust, 180 Hemenway Road, Framingham, Massachusetts 01701 (508) 877-7630