Mary Raissi Stewart

Mary Raissi Stewart danced into the afterlife on December 29, 2022, six months after celebrating her 101st birthday. A member of the Greatest Generation, Mary was born at home on June 25, 1921, to Greek immigrants, Kyriakos Raissi and Anna Gavalas Raissi. One of six children, she grew up in the Thompsonville section of Enfield where she learned the values of hard work, education, and family from her father who owned an ice cream shop and later worked at the Bigelow Sanford carpet factory for more than fifty years and her mother who cared for six children. Mary graduated from Enfield High School in 1938 and received a bachelor’s degree from American International College in 1942. Wanting to help with the war effort and to travel, she enlisted in the United States Coast Guard in 1943. Stationed in Palm Beach Florida, she became a Chief Yeoman, taught business courses to military secretaries, and then served as an administrative assistant to an admiral in Washington D.C. For these efforts, she was honored by the U.S. Coast Guard on her 101st birthday in June of 2022 at the Coast Guard Academy in New London. With the help of her GI benefits, she received an MBA from Boston University in 1948. Her brief marriage to Robert Stewart brought her to Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She taught business courses at the University of the Virgin Islands for more than twenty years, where she was a mentor and inspiration to many of her students until she retired in 1986. In retirement she traveled extensively, visiting almost every continent, except for Antarctica, due to her dislike of temperatures under 80 degrees. Mary made friends of all ages wherever she went and was the life of every party, often dancing with a drink on her head. An ardent feminist, she financially supported her sisters in their respective careers—Pauline, a certified public accountant; Poppy, a high school teacher; Evangeline, a law librarian; and Shirley, a law professor. Although she never had children, she was actively involved in the lives of her nieces and nephews and enjoyed traveling with them and attending family weddings where into her late nineties she would dance with people decades younger. Throughout her long and extraordinary life, Mary lived independently and attributed her longevity and good health to her Mediterranean diet, a large network of friends and family, frequent walks, and her relentless commitment to enjoying all that life had to offer. At her yearly physicals at the Veterans Hospital, she challenged her doctors to find something wrong with her. An avid reader, she kept up with current events, loved playing bridge with her sisters, and relished working on her niece’s campaigns and visiting casinos, where she often won at the slot machines. In 2013 at the age of 92, she received an honorary degree from her alma mater American International College and delivered a speech at commencement without notes, telling the graduates to “make every person you meet count” as she tried to do. Fiercely proud of her Greek heritage, she celebrated her 95th birthday by traveling to Greece to visit relatives. She was predeceased by her parents and her siblings, Pauline Scourles, Poppy Fowler, Evangeline Luddy, John Raissi, and Shirley Raissi Bysiewicz, and nephew John Fowler. She is survived by her nieces: Lillie Fowler Doyle, Christine Luddy Bell, Susan Bysiewicz, Karen Bysiewicz, and Gail Bysiewicz, and her nephews: Theodore Scourles, Robert Fowler, John Luddy, and John Bysiewicz as well as many grand and great grand nieces and nephews. She is also survived by her many friends from Florida and Saint Croix, including Rita Dillon, Peggi Morris, Phil Forbes, Alex Rivera, Barbara Frost, and Joan Inzinga. A private celebration of her life will be held in Connecticut. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to either AIC at www.aic.edu/give/donate or the Shirley Raissi Bysiewicz Scholarship Fund at the UCONN School of Law. Checks can be made payable to the UCONN Law Foundation, Inc. at 2390 Alumni Drive Unit 32066, Storrs, CT 06269. Please indicate the Shirley Raissi Bysiewicz Fund on the check. To share memories or express condolences online please visit www.biegafuneralhome. com.