Mary Adams Bitzer Was Active in Volunteer Work

Mary Adams (Mimi) Bitzer of Edgartown died Saturday, June 19, at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Shadyside Hospital after a 17-year battle against cancer. She was 66.

Mimi Bitzer was born August 25, 1937 in Bethlehem, Pa., to the late Pauline (Hornbach) Adams and Rolland LeRoy Adams. Her father was the publisher of the Bethlehem Globe Times and the Atlantic City Press. She was graduated from the George School in 1955, from Connecticut College for Women in 1959 and from the Duquesne University School of Nursing in 1981. She also took graduate classes at the University of Southern California and worked as a practicing part-time nurse at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh in the 1980s and was considered a pioneer in the family business governance process in the 1990s. She lived in the Hampton Township area of Pittsburgh with her husband, John. They also maintained residences in Edgartown and Pine Cay in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Mr. and Mrs. Bitzer were founding members of the Fox Chapel Racquet Club as well as members of the Fox Chapel Golf Club, The Edgartown Yacht Club and the Pine Cay Meridian Club.

Mrs. Bitzer was an active participant in community services in the Pittsburgh area. She was on the board of directors of First Stage: Performing Arts for Children at the Carnegie Museum and a member and past president of the Junior League of Pittsburgh. She was a board member and past president of Vintage, a provider of social services to seniors in the Pittsburgh area, and served on the board of directors of the Central Blood Bank of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Mrs. Bitzer was a founding supporter of the Pittsburgh Public Theater and acted in some of the PPT's early productions. She also served on the board of trustees of the Fountainhead Foundation, a Pittsburgh-area philanthropic organization, as a trustee and past president.

She was associated with numerous other organizations. She was a member of the board of directors of ABARTA Inc., a Pittsburgh-based family business. She was a member of the University of Southern California Associates and the board of governors of the Pine Cay Association in the Turks and Caicos Islands. She was a member of the Headmaster Advisory Committee of the George School in Newtown, Pa. and a longtime member of the Fox Chapel Episcopal Church.

Mrs. Bitzer and her family bought their first home on Martha's Vineyard in 1972 in Katama. She has been summering on the Vineyard ever since. The family moved into Edgartown in the early 1980s where she graciously hosted friends from all over the world and was well-known throughout the Vineyard.

Mimi Bitzer is survived by her loving husband of 45 years, John Frederick Bitzer Jr.; her three children, Elizabeth Bitzer Dusch of Sparta, N.J., and John Frederick Bitzer 3rd and Charles William Bitzer, both of Pittsburgh; 14 grandchildren: Daniel Regis Dusch 3rd, Benjamin Bitzer Dusch, Trevor William Dusch, Matthew Charles Bitzer, Nicolas Frederick Bitzer, Elizabeth Adams Bitzer, Hannah Barrington Bitzer, John Frederick (Max) Bitzer IV, Walter William Bitzer, Alice Jean Bitzer, Kay Pauline Bitzer, Mary Helen Margaret Bitzer, Charles Marcel Bitzer and Samuel Richard Thomas Bitzer; two sisters, Marcia Roehr of Lincoln and Vineyard Haven and Nancy Ann Taylor of Bethlehem, Pa., and Chilmark.

The Bitzer family are receiving visitors at their Hampton Township home on Monday, June 21, from 7 to 9 p.m. and Tuesday, June 22, from 2 to 5 p.m. There will be an Episcopal memorial service at the Presbyterian Church in Fox Chapel on June 23 at 11 a.m.

Services will also be held at St. Andrews Church on North Summer street in Edgartown at 11 a.m. on Friday, June 25, followed by interment at the New West Side Cemetery. Vineyard arrangements are under the care of Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home in Oak Bluffs. Memorial contributions may be made to Vintage, 401 North Highland avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15205.