Mary M. Taylor | Teacher and priest, 79

Mary M. Taylor, 79, a teacher who became an Episcopal priest later in life, died on Christmas Day in Whitehorse Village, a retirement community in Newtown Square, from the effects of Parkinson's disease.

A 1949 graduate of Bryn Mawr College, Rev. Taylor received her doctorate in microbiology there in 1964 and her master of divinity from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1987. She was ordained in 1988.

Rev. Taylor taught lower-school science at the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, and anatomy and physiology at Montgomery County Community College. She also taught briefly at Women's Medical College in Philadelphia.

"Though her identity in her first career was as a teacher," said her daughter, Delia Turner, in her second career "her identity was as an Episcopal priest. It was a complete change.

In the 1990s, she said, Rev. Turner was vicar at All Saints Church in Fallsington, Bucks County, and after that served at St. Mary's Church in Chester, Delaware County.

She is survived by son, Conrad W. Jr., daughters Delia and Polly Turner, five grandchildren and her first husband, Conrad W. Turner Sr. Her second husband, Robert H. Taylor, predeceased her.

A memorial service is set for 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. John's Episcopal Church, 576 Concord Road, Glen Mills.