Marka Spalding Wise of Westport died Friday July 10, at St. Anne’s Hospital, Fall River, after a short period of rapidly declining health. For 45 years she was the loving wife of Christopher T. “Kit” Wise. Born in 1935, she was the daughter of the late Oakes Ames Spalding and Dorothy Goodrich Spalding.
She grew up principally in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and attended Falmouth public schools and Milton Academy. She was graduated from the Madeira School in McLean, Virginia and attended Sarah Lawrence College for two years prior to her first marriage to Charles S. Boit.
Marka’s widely varied working career began at the age of 12 when she worked after school washing laboratory bottles at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. She worked as a secretary, and as a clerk in a clothing store and an audio store. For a time she had a studio in Boston where she taught folk guitar and banjo. She developed skills as a typesetter and graphic layout designer, learning to typeset in several foreign languages. From 1974 to 1985 she owned and operated the art and drafting-supply store For Art’s Sake in Falmouth, MA, with branches in Vineyard Haven and New Bedford. After closing the store she did consulting and sales for early point-of-sale computer systems.
She was a nearly life-long member of the Woods Hole Golf Club. But the greatest passion of her life was bicycle racing. Not a rider herself, she became a United States Cycling Federation race official and commissar of the UCI (International Cycling Union). She founded and managed NECSA (New England Cycling Support Association), a junior bicycle-racing development program. She developed young riders who became regional and national junior champions in road racing and cyclocross. One rider she supported from an early age went on to ride in the Tour de France.
In addition to her husband she is survived by her brother Oakes Ames Spalding, Jr. and his wife Monique of Cambridge, MA; her sons Christopher S. Boit and his wife Kathryn of Lincoln, MA, and Peter G. Boit and his wife Jennifer of Sammamish, WA; and grandchildren Andrea, Alexandra, Timothy, Cutter, Colin and McKenna.
Burial will be private. A celebration of her life will be held Friday, July 24, 2015 at 2:00 P.M. at the residence.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made in her name to the Special Olympics (www.specialolympics.org/donate).