Judith Birsh, of West Tisbury, died on Wednesday, June 17, after a brief illness, at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. She was 90.
Born Judith Rosenberg on Oct. 21, 1935 in Paterson, N.J. she was a leading authority in the fields of dyslexia and reading. Her textbook, Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills, its chapters commissioned from her chosen experts, is a standard for training reading teachers. She advocated consistently for instruction in phonics as the basis of literacy, despite trends in education to the contrary, and at the end of her life, her work was vindicated in many quarters. On June 16, a headline in The Boston Globe announced “Mass. Lawmakers Strike Deal on Major Reading Overhaul Requiring Phonics in All Schools.”
She was a graduate of Vassar College. While a student there she married Arthur Birsh and became the mother of Andrew Birsh. Vassar noted that, in 1957, she was the first woman in the college’s long history to have a baby and finish with her entering class. She went on to have two more children, Philip and Joanne Hope Birsh.
She and her family moved to New York City, and Judith commenced graduate studies at Teachers College — Columbia University. Her attention turned to the education of individuals with learning disabilities, and by the time she received her doctor of education degree, she was an officer of the Orton Society (now the International Dyslexia Association). She taught for many years at Teachers College, consulted in schools on basic language curricula, and eventually brought out her book, which is in its fourth edition. She received a number of awards and honors for her work.
She came to Martha’s Vineyard as a summer visitor for the first time in 1975. She became a West Tisbury property owner, at Misty Meadows, in 1978, and built a barn-style cottage for vacation stays. After a divorce from her husband, she built a full-scale home, designed by her neighbor Hilary Blocksom, with stonework by Lew French and construction by Dick Carlson, on her land, a project that endeared her to Vineyard trades people.
She became a year-round resident in 2020, and contributed her expertise as a dyslexia and learning-disabilities educator to those in need of help on the Island. She also served on the board of the West Tisbury Library Foundation and was a member of several convivial, informal women’s groups and the Hebrew Center of Martha’s Vineyard.
She is survived by her three children, as well as grandchildren Alexander Birsh, Abigail Frank, Mark Plakotoris, Neena Plakotoris, Charlotte Birsh and Nikolai Birsh, and great grandchildren Arthur Frank and Sally Frank; and by her cousins Nancy Hoffman-Schwartz and Robert Schwartz of West Tisbury.
A celebration of her life is planned for the end of summer.