ASHLAND –Mary Mortensen was a force for public health, a community champion, and an advocate for the underdog.
“She was kind of a crusader,” daughter Susan Robie said.
The Ashland resident and longtime nurse, health board chairwoman, and former firefighter died at MetroWest Medical Center Wednesday. The 74-year-old had been hospitalized since the Friday before Christmas, her daughter said, with breathing problems due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
When she asked her children to remove her from the machines keeping her alive, they acquiesced.
“It was a challenge,” Robie admitted. But, she added, “We were able to honor what she asked, and not a lot of people are able to get that opportunity.”
Mortensen was Ashland’s first female call firefighter, family said, working on the department from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s.
“She was definitely one of the pioneers of that,” Ashland Fire Lt. Iarussi said.
Iarussi said he was on the department when Mortensen worked the overnights and dispatch. That was when the 911 phones were three red, rotary dial handsets, he said, and Mortensen would have to blow the station’s horn to call in off-duty firefighters.
“I’ll tell you, she had a very distinctive laugh,” Iarussi remembered. “I can remember always having very fun times, just a lot of the department banter, teasing and stuff. It was fun.”
She started the annual bingo night 30 years ago that still serves as the fire department’s biggest fundraiser, according to the fire department, paying for town activities, local scholarships, and more. She was an advocate for the Ashland Emergency Fund.
“She’s certainly an example of dedicated service in this town,” Town Manager Michael Herbert said. The loss is tough, he added, and “I’m going to miss her on both a professional and personal level.”
Helping other people was Mortensen’s passion, Robie said. She said her mother went to nursing school while raising four children, then worked at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and later as a school nurse at Framingham’s Reed Academy. She helped an elderly couple in the same neighborhood as Robie’s childhood home, served as a nurse for the Greater Ashland Lions Club, and ran the flu clinic in town until very recently.
“She also was a nurse to every kid in the neighborhood who needed something looked at,” Robie remembered.
From her longtime seat on the board of health, Mortensen fought the effects of tobacco, taking a hard lesson from her own experience as a smoker. During her tenure, the board raised the age a person could buy cigarettes in town to 21, and put restrictions on flavored tobacco products.
“I think she wanted to deter younger people from ending up with the same addiction she had,” Robie said.
She became the board’s chairwoman in September.
“I had texted her on Christmas Eve, and we had chatted on Christmas Eve,” fellow Board of Health member Jon Fetherston said. “And her exact words were ‘I’m getting out on Tuesday.”
Mortensen will be buried Monday, Jan. 15. Calling hours will be Sunday, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Matarese Funeral Home. Donations can be made to the Ashland Ambulance Fund, in lieu of flowers.
Alison Bosma can be reached at 508-626-3957 or abosma@wicked local.com. Find her on Twitter at @AlisonBosma.