Maryanne K. (Drozd) Whirty, beloved wife of the late Robert F. Whirty, passed away at Brightview Senior Living of North Andover, on September 20, 2026.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, Maryanne was the daughter of the late Ignatius and Katherine (Ciuba) Drozd.
Maryanne was a precocious and talented polymath; her interests and vocations were many and varied. After her children were born, she earned her bachelor’s degree in English literature at Kean University, and then completed her M.A. and Ph.D. at New York University. The focus of her advanced studies was the English romantic poets, and she wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on the poetry of Lord Byron. In the course of her research, she was privileged to work with original Byron manuscripts housed at the Frick Library in New York City and Sorbonne University in Paris. She went on to teach at City University of New York, New York University and Monmouth University.
Maryanne also worked at various positions in the fields of stock brokerage, social security claims analysis and administration, pharmaceutical new drug clinical trials and introductions, and gemology.
She and her husband Bob loved to travel and enjoyed trips throughout Europe, Scandinavia, and the Holy Land. She looked forward to annual hiking trips with a women’s group, climbing mountains in U.S. national parks and abroad, and as a pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago.
A voracious reader, Maryanne also was an accomplished writer and poet who kept extensive journals. She could sew and knit her own clothing, planted and maintained beautiful gardens, including one devoted to roses, created Tiffany look-alike stained glass lamps, and was a reasonably good poker player. She loved classical music and opera and had subscription tickets to the Met in New York City for many years. She also enjoyed walking the boardwalk at her house at the Jersey shore, and running, and completed the New York City Marathon several times. Of all these interests, she especially loved spending time with her grandchildren, Rob and Hanna.
Maryanne is survived by her loving son, Robert F. Whirty and his fiancee Cecilia Dunoyer of Andover; daughter Susan Whirty Maffei and her husband Adam of Bailey Island, Maine and Marblehead, Massachusetts; brother Robert Drozd and sister Wanda Spiotta, both of New Jersey; grandchildren Robert and Hanna Whirty; and her Brightview friends and caregivers.
Funeral services will be held on Thursday September 24 at 11:00 a.m. at Ridgewood Cemetery, 177 Salem Street, North Andover.