Mary Powell Lewis, pioneering orthopedic surgeon, role model, mentor, and tree farmer, has died at 98

Mary Powell Lewis, 98, of Newtown Square, retired orthopedic surgeon, pioneering role model for women, mentor to many, longtime caregiver, and Virginia tree farmer, died Monday, July 15, of heart disease at her home.

Dr. Powell married Stuart Lewis, also a doctor, in 1954, and, to avoid confusion, did not use Lewis as her professional name. They settled in Philadelphia in 1963, and she practiced orthopedics for decades in Abington and Bryn Mawr, and was affiliated with Bryn Mawr, Presbyterian, Abington Memorial, and Haverford Community Hospitals, and other medical facilities.

In 1963, she became one of the first American women to be board certified in orthopedic surgery. Later, she was president of the local chapter of the American Medical Women’s Association and the Philadelphia Club of Medical Women.

She was a founding member of the progressive Ruth Jackson Orthopedic Society and a warm and engaging mentor to other doctors and patients, and was active with the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, Pennsylvania Orthopedic Society, and other medical groups.

She championed women in the workplace and led a public panel discussion for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1985 titled “Medicine as a career choice for women.”

“The human body was endlessly interesting for her,” said her daughter Dee. “She was curious and hands-on. But she didn’t rush things. She listened carefully to her patients.”

Dr. Powell had residencies in general surgery, orthopedics, and radiology at what is now Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and Philadelphia’s old Hahnemann Hospital. She delivered babies in Appalachia and spent two years studying radiological physics with her husband in London.

She taught classes at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and worked later with veterans in hospitals in Coatesville and Wilmington. Reared in rural Virginia, she cherished nature and animals, and served as a medical officer on wilderness trail rides out west.

She was patient and empathetic, and an attentive listener, her family said, and they called her determination to overcome obstacles her “polite persistence.” Her daughter Judith said: ”My friend said she had a ‘spine of steel.’”

Dr. Powell’s husband lived with Huntington’s Disease, and she was his primary caregiver for decades. She joined the board of trustees of the Delaware Valley chapter of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America and earned its 2002 Woman of Distinction Award for activism.

Her family owned a tree farm in Spotsylvania County, Va., that harvested timber, and she assumed its operation after she retired in 1987. At 40, she started skiing. “She took things on,” said her daughter Dee.

Mary Martin Powell was born Jan. 26, 1926, in Fredericksburg, Va. Her parents were lawyers, and she was serious, smart, and studious as a girl.

She graduated from high school at 16 and from Mary Washington College, now the University of Mary Washington, when she was 19. She earned her medical degree in 1949 at what is now the University of Tennessee College of Medicine.

She met Stuart Lewis at Johns Hopkins, and they spent their nine-month honeymoon traveling through Mexico, Central America, and South America. They had daughters Dee, Caroline, Margaret, and Judith, and lived in Northeast Philadelphia, Villanova, and Newtown Square.

“They were best friends and intellectual compadres,” said her daughter Judith. Her husband died in 2007.

Dr. Powell was interested and active in the lives of her daughters. She played piano, enjoyed opera, and chaired the music committee for a time at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Wayne. She liked cats and horses, gardening and bird watching.

“She was Southern gracious and formal, quiet but friendly,” said her daughter Judith. “Always compassionate, she put people at ease.”

In addition to her daughters, Dr. Powell is survived by four grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren. A sister died earlier.

A celebration of her life is to be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 104 Louella Ave., Wayne, Pa. 19087.

Donations in her name may be made to the Huntington’s Disease Society of America, 505 Eighth Ave., Suite 1402, New York, N.Y. 10018; the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 4301 Wilson Blvd., Suite 300, Arlington, Va. 22203; and the Stuart H. Lewis Memorial Fund at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 104 Louella Ave., Wayne, Pa. 19087.