Mardi Gibbons, retired innovative principal, reading specialist, and teaching consultant, has died at 82
She organized annual sleepovers at school to strengthen the connection between students and the classroom. “It’s a way of creating a sense of intimacy for their school,” she said, “a way for the students to see the school differently.”
Mardi Gibbons, 82, of Delanco, retired innovative elementary school principal in Pennsauken Township, former reading supervisor for the Camden City School District, teaching consultant, mentor, and volunteer, died Wednesday, March 13, of pneumonia at Virtua Voorhees Hospital.
Inspired by what her family called “an immense passion and love for children,” Mrs. Gibbons fashioned a 20-year career with the Pennsauken school district that featured creative and groundbreaking initiatives that redefined education and drew praise from colleagues, parents, and students. She was, said Ronnie Tarchichi, superintendent of Pennsauken Public Schools, “a wonderful principal” and “mentor of many great educators.”
Students loved that Mrs. Gibbons read poetry, sang songs, and danced at school assemblies. Colleagues admired her cascade of novel ideas, and parents appreciated her 24/7 approach to education. She became the third Black principal in Pennsauken when she assumed control at George B. Fine and C.A. Baldwin Elementary Schools in 1987, and she was principal later at Albert E. Burling, Theodore Roosevelt, and Benjamin Franklin Elementary Schools until her retirement in 2006.
Colleagues called her a “Pennsauken icon,” and Tarchichi said in a tribute: “She led with love, grace, intelligence, compassion, and dignity. She always kept children and families at the forefront of everything that she did.”
Mrs. Gibbons received a school leadership grant in 2001 from the Principals’ Center for the Garden State for organizing activities such as Saturday counseling sessions for parents and students, visual arts pilot programs, and outreach projects with neighborhood activists. She also showed up at soccer and baseball games she knew her students were playing, and even rented a theater so families could attend a free movie.
“Mardi Gibbons is just the best principal I’ve ever seen,” the aunt of two Fine students told The Inquirer in 1997. “She’s just a doll baby. The way she leads, she’s a principal, friend, mother. She’s just a great lady.”
Mrs. Gibbons especially championed reading and organized annual Friday night sleepovers at school during which nearly 100 second through fifth graders read, sang, danced, and watched movies until lights out at midnight. “I think it makes them feel that the school belongs to them and has a vital importance in their lives, not just a place they go Monday to Friday from 8:50 to 3:25,” she told The Inquirer in a 1997 story about a sleepover at Fine. “When kids feel that, they want to come to school, and they want to learn.”
Martha Ellen Lewis was born Nov. 3, 1941, in Gary, Ind. Her family moved to Columbus, Ohio, when she was young, and she played sports and was a popular student in high school.
She was elected Miss Freshman at Fisk University in Tennessee, transferred later to Kentucky State University, joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education in 1964. Seeking adventure and new experiences, she moved to New Jersey and found work as an education counselor at Job Corps in Roselle and later as a teaching consultant at New Jersey colleges and reading specialist and district supervisor in Camden.
She met Leonard Gibbons through mutual friends, and they married in 1968, and had daughters Maya and Nikki. They moved to Maple Shade in 1972, Cherry Hill in 1976, and Delanco in 2006.
Mrs. Gibbons was an avid golfer and helped establish a Black women’s league in South Jersey. She was an ardent walker and cyclist who raised funds for cancer research and other causes, and even traveled to Ireland in 1998 to walk in a marathon to benefit leukemia research.
She doted on her family, attended practically every event in which her five grandchildren participated, and was especially close to her sons-in-law, Landrus Lewis and Douglas Coleman. She served her husband and daughters breakfast every morning and dinner every night for years, and made birthdays and other holidays extra special.
“Family was everything to her,” said her daughter Nikki, “and she loved us fearlessly and unconditionally.” Her daughter Maya said: “She was gracious and kind, and made you feel warm and comfortable.”
A friend said in a Facebook tribute: “She was a wonderful person inside and out.”
In addition to her husband, daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, Mrs. Gibbons is survived by other relatives. A brother died earlier.
A memorial service is to be held Saturday, April 20, at Christ the King Episcopal Church, 40 Charleston Rd., Willingboro, N.J. 08046.
Donations in her name may be made to Moorestown Friends School Mardi Gibbons Memorial Fund, 110 E. Main St., Moorestown, N.J. 08057.