Betsy A. Merrick, former Realtor

Betsy A. Merrick, whose career in real estate sales spanned more than two decades, died Sunday of complications from Alzheimer’s disease at her Lutherville home. She was 83.

The former Betsy Ann LeBrun, daughter of H. Francies LeBrun, a real estate and insurance executive, and his wife, Beatrice White LeBrun, who was also a real estate and insurance executive, was born in Baltimore and raised in Lutherville.

She was a 1955 graduate of Friends School, where she played varsity field hockey for four years and was named All-Maryland goalie, and played varsity basketball for three years. She was also a member of the school’s first women’s lacrosse team. In 2005, she was inducted into the Friends School Hall of Fame.

She attended Randolph-Macon Woman’s College where she studied biology and played field hockey.

In 1957, she married William Caspari III, a Navy reservist, who was killed in 1967 when the patrol plane he was aboard crashed. After the death of her husband, she returned to Baltimore with the couple’s three young sons.

In 1968, she married Samuel Merrick, a Baltimore County residential builder, and settled in Lutherville.

Mrs. Merrick earned a bachelor’s degree in the 1970s from what is now Towson University and after obtaining her real estate license in the late 1970s went to work for Hill & Co. and in1982, joined Piper & Co. where she was the first female manager in the firm’s Hunt Valley office.

She assisted in the merger when the firm became known as O’Conor, Piper & Flynn, and the Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, from which she retired in 2003.

Her professional associations included the Greater Baltimore Association of Realtors, Mid-Atlantic Realty and the Maryland Association of Realtors. She was also a certified licensed real estate appraiser and a graduate of the Real Estate Institute.

Mrs. Merrick maintained an interest in the arts and gardening. She was a member of the Woman’s Club of Roland Park, Historical Society of Baltimore County and Maryland Historical Society, and had been a docent at the Baltimore Museum of Art. She established an art program at the Boys’ Latin School and served as its first art teacher.

She was a former president of the Town and County Garden Club, a former member of the Ladew Topiary Gardens, and a member of the Maryland Rose Society.

Mrs. Merrick was a member of The Elkridge Club, where she was a member of the women’s tennis team. She began bowling in her retirement and was a member of Club 55, which was composed of Friends School classmates.

She was a member of St. Stephen’s Anglican Church in Mays Chapel.

Services were private.

In addition to her husband of 52 years, she is survived by three sons, William Caspari IV and Charles F. Caspari, both of Lutherville, and Samuel S. Merrick Jr. of Winston-Salem, North Carolina; 10 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Another son, Richard W. Caspari, died in 1999.

—Frederick N. Rasmussen