Marcia K. Weiss (Kessler)
Nashua, NH 03063
Undergrad college/major: Home Economics/Foods and Nutrition/Child Psychology.
Affiliations at Cornell: Cornell Daily Sun trainee.
Advanced degrees: Columbia Teacher's College.
Career/occupation: I retired four years ago from a multifaceted career as an educator, writer, and entrepreneur (full-scale catering business). Presently, I continue as a volunteer educator, a prolific but unpaid writer, an entrepreneurial artist (jewelry designer and fabricator) and a continual student. Somehow little has changed but my tax return, and that I am busier than ever!
Honors and awards: New England Regional Sisterhood Woman of the Year, countless awards and recognition for my cooking abilities, and now for my jewelry. My greatest honor is the unending love and support given me by my family and friends.
Important affiliations: AAUW (founder and secretary of Nashua Chapter); Founder and treasurer of Temple Beth Abraham Nursery School; Pres. Temple Beth Abraham Sisterhood; Pres. Nashua Chapter of Hadassah; Founder and holder of Community Service Chair for Temple Beth Abraham; Nashua Soup Kitchen Volunteer; American Red Cross Blood Bank coordinator for TBA; Tay-Sachs testing program coordinator; Nashua Arts and Science Center Board; Girls Club of Nashua Board; Mayor's Council for Ethnic Awareness; Hollis Arts Society; Truro Artists Assn.
Published work: Poetry, essays and short stories (Dawn Literary Magazine).
Marital status: Married.
Spouse: Ronald D. Weiss.
Children: Matthew Weiss and Jeffrey Weiss.
Grandchildren: Ethan, Adam, Haley, Fletcher, Oliver and Charles Spencer Weiss.
Outstanding Cornell memory: Without a doubt the most outstanding memory is of the glorious fall foliage, especially the “Morse Chain/NCR” Hill.
How has your life differed from what you expected? I left Cornell with a modicum of hubris and an excess of determination, a combination I felt would make my life a bowl of cherries which, in actuality, morphed into challenging and ever-increasing bowls of lemons. Determined, and passionate about finding solutions for all life's lemony challenges, I devised a recipe for a magnificent lemon mousse, which became the “signature dessert” of my philosophy and my catering company.
Personal reflections: In late October of 1956, I commandeered the dining room table (with the warning that it must be cleared off and ready for setting two days before Thanksgiving), nine file folders and a very old Royal mechanical type writer from my father's medical office, and began a very orderly and detailed process of filling out nine college applications. At 15, mentored by my mother's best friend (who just happened to be the Foods Editor of The Ladies Home Journal), I decided on a career in foods journalism for it combined two of my early passions, writing and art of wonderful food. Cornell became an integral part of my “idee fixe”. The other eight applications (7 all- girls colleges, and 1 huge university) seemed rather irrelevant, but necessary to appease my parents’ goal for me to pursue the humanities. The fact that all came through didn't change my focus for a second! Thus began my specific journey during which, from nadir to zenith, I trod the many universally shared roads, reaching those identifiable mile markers eventually - no matter where or for how long I got lost along the way- and enduring a number of dreams and expectations that hit the wall. The slew of challenges, white-knuckling obstacles and disappointments, some humbling successes, despair and joy were all necessary parts of my human conditioning. Just like our fingerprints, our journeys differ only in their individual details. My details are well organized, easily accessible, and ever updated in folders on my computer desktop. One folder is called “Cornell Exit Essay.” There is a sticky near it that says “Complete 2 days before Thanksgiving!” I have, along the way, learned the importance of both hope and attitude, the art of simplification, and that now is all there is.