Martha A. Dase
Homemaker and longtime Greater Baltimore Medical Center volunteer
Martha A. Dase, a homemaker and longtime Greater Baltimore Medical Center volunteer, died of heart failure July 3 at Bonnie Blink, the Maryland Masonic home in Hunt Valley. The Timonium resident was 94.
The former Martha Alice Boze, daughter of Roy Bose, a truck driver, and his wife, Lilliane Boze, a homemaker, was born and raised in Piqua, Ohio.
She attended high school through the 11th grade when she withdrew because of the death of her parents. She was 16 when she moved to Dayton, Ohio, where she lived at the YMCA while working at Dayton Power and Light Co. to support herself, and later at a bank in Cincinnati.
She met her future husband, Arthur Dase, at a YMCA, and the couple married in 1945.
“She was a self-made woman,” said her son, Randy Dase of Timonium.
Mrs. Dase and her husband, who worked for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, moved to Baltimore in 1963 when he was transferred to the railroad’s headquarters, and settled in a home on Stanmore Road in Rodgers Forge. They later moved to the Springdale neighborhood in Timonium, where they lived for many years.
When living in Rodgers Forge, she was very active in the Parent Teacher Associations of Rodgers Forge Elementary, Dumbarton Middle, and Towson High schools. When she was elected president of the Dumbarton PTA, she was the first woman to hold that office, her son said, and because of her extraordinary volunteer hours and commitment to public education, she was awarded a lifetime membership in the National PTA.
For two decades until retiring in 2014, Mrs. Dase accumulated almost 3,000 volunteer hours while working with nurses in the cardiac care unit at Greater Baltimore Medical Center.
In addition to her hospital work, Mrs. Dase, who was a 52-year member of Towson United Methodist Church, served on the worship and other committees, and was also a lay leader. For the last 27 years, she collected fruits and greens for the Williamsburg-inspired della Robbia wreath that hung over the main entrance to the church during Christmas season.
She was also an inveterate sports fan and served for many years on the Towson Recreation Council board and had been the official scorekeeper for her son’s travel basketball teams.
She and her husband were devoted Towson High School sports fans where their son had been an outstanding athlete, and later returned to teach and coach lacrosse, soccer and basketball for 45 years, until retiring in 2019.
Mrs. Dase had been an active member for more than 20 years of the Spring Valley Garden Club, and for 70 years, had supported the Order of the Eastern Star of Dayton, Ohio, and was the longest standing member in her region, her son said.
After her husband retired in 1985 from the Chessie System, the B & O’s successor, where he was supervisor of payroll and maintenance, the couple wintered in Seminole, Florida, where she walked on the beach six miles every day. They also enjoyed taking Caribbean cruises.
Mr. Dase died in 2014.
A memorial service will be held July 30 at 11 a.m. at her church, 501 Hampton Lane, Towson.
In addition to her son, she is survived by two grandsons.