Mary Ellen Crawford Ames'40passed away on Aug. 17, 2021, following a lifetime of achievement and adventure that spanned 102 years. For 70 of those years, she was an engaging presence at Wellesley as a student, class president, alumna volunteer, personnel director, and as the College’s venerable director of admission from 1969 to 1985. While granting the privilege of a Wellesley education to thousands of present-day alumnae, she implemented Wellesley’s celebrated need-blind admission policy, considering it her mission to bring to Wellesley “the quality of students we deserve and who deserve us.” A national trailblazer, Mary Ellen applied her expertise to cornerstones of the admission process: She was chosen for a committee of eight to develop the SAT content, served as a trustee charged with determining the policies of the College Entrance Examination Board, and sat on the selection committees of both the National Merit Scholarship and the Coca-Cola Scholarship. Wellesley’s current dean of admission and financial aid, Joy St. John, applauds Mary Ellen as “an amazing woman—a female leader in our field who was so proud of the growth and diversity of Wellesley’s applicant pool and who remained concerned that the application process continue to recognize the full humanity of students.”

玛丽艾伦在她的入学任期之前几十年前，在美国红十字海外服务中对美国的参与作出了贡献。从1943年到1945年到1945年，她丰富多彩，往往的令人振奋的经历包括在现场弹药射击下钻探，持续到伦敦·闪击袭击医院物业的嗡嗡声袭击，在D日之后不久在奥马哈海滩上着陆，与德国互动prisoners of war, and celebrating V-E Day on the Champs-Élysées.

Following her retirement, Mary Ellen continued to devote herself to her “den of men”—her husband, George, and their three sons and their families—while lending her signature “get-it-done” style to undertakings at Wellesley, Thayer Academy, and her hometown of South Natick. She served 15 years on WCAB’s Authors on Stage committee, devoted several decades to the Katharine Malone Prizes committee, and lent her skills to Wellesley’s New York Marketing Committee. Highly respected, she was also affectionately embraced, with the admission office living room and a Wellesley Vespoli crew hull both named in her honor.

甚至融入她90年代，玛丽艾伦保留了她的快速机智，独立生活，维护一系列活动和友谊的时间表。显然，这个奇异的女人的世纪的好作品回答了创始人亨利杜兰特的“寿命的最高愚蠢的效果”。