Ida Bell Mower

04/03/2002

Ida Bell Mower, 95, of Iron Mine Road, an educator, social worker and child therapist, died Wednesday at home. Born in Lawrence, Kan., on Dec. 24, 1906, daughter of Samuel P. and Ora Pearl Warner Bell, she attended schools there and graduated from Topeka High School in 1924. She received a bachelor's degree in English from Washburn University in Topeka in 1929, and completed graduate work in education at the Uni-versity of Kansas in Lawrence. She earned her master's degree in social work at Tulane University in New Orleans in 1943. Mrs. Mower began her profes-sional career as a high school teacher of English, Spanish and algebra in Kansas. In the late 1930s, she underwent analytic training at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, and began working in public child welfare services in New Orleans. She then returned to Menninger's as a child therapist and assisted Dr. Karl Men-ninger in research and editing for several books. She married James Wilson Mower on April 4, 1946, in Pasa-dena, Calif., and during the late 1940s resided in Beverly Hills, Calif., where she was a child therapist at the Hacker Psychiatric Clinic. In 1947, they relocated to Stockbridge when her husband accepted a position at the Austen Riggs Center. Since 1947, she had resided in Stock-bridge, Lee, and California before moving to West Stockbridge. Her husband died Jan. 5, 1965. At various times Mrs. Mower was a Realtor, the proprietor of an arts and crafts shop and a social worker at the former Austen Riggs Center, now Mental Health and Substance Abuse of the Berkshires, and at Berkshire Center for Families and Children. She also worked at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and maintained a private social work practice during the 1970s and early '80s. She taught sociology, human services and English for many years at Berkshire Community College and helped to found the human services program there during the 1970s. She was an avid student of history, politics and social issues, and was interested in organic gardening and cooking with whole foods. She leaves two daughters, Carolyn Mower Burns and Susan Mower, both of West Stockbridge, with whom she made her home, and two grandchildren. She was also predeceased by her brother, Samuel Bell, in 1961 and by a sister who died in infancy. A service of remembrance will be conducted Saturday, April 6, at 2 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Stockbridge by the Rev. John Tarrant, pastor. There will be no calling hours. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Community Health Association of Richmond/West Stockbridge, Berkshire Community College for photography equipment for the South County campus or to the Monument Mountain Regional High School band through FINNERTY & STEVENS FUNERAL HOME, 426 Main St., Great Barrington, MA 01230. Remembrances, memories and reflections may be sent to her family through finnerty@bcn.net.

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