Molly Hartzell, pioneering social worker and elder rights advocate, dies at 94

Molly Hartzell, 94, of Gladwyne, a pioneering social worker who first assisted children and teens in need and then became a tireless counselor to seniors and an advocate for elder rights, died Saturday, April 2, of lymphoma at Pennsylvania Hospital.

Inspired by an abiding religious faith and the kindness and selflessness of her grandmother and others, Mrs. Hartzell advised troubled teens in Massachusetts, supervised and placed foster-care children in New York, and guided vulnerable seniors in Montgomery County and elsewhere for nearly 50 years.

“She decided early that kindness and compassion was how she was going to live her life,” said her son, David. “She possessed the unique ability to see the good in everyone.”

Beginning in 1977, when many organized elder care services were still emerging, Mrs. Hartzell marched to the forefront of the movement and became a senior social worker and director of the Lower Merion-Narberth Coalition for Older Adults. In that role, she was instrumental in creating a local adult day-care center and long-term care consortium among nursing homes and assisted living centers.

She then served as board president and director of ElderNet for Lower Merion-Narberth, the successor of the Coalition for Older Adults, and was a field instructor for the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work, now the School of Social Policy and Practice.

She volunteered at Family Service of the Main Line Neighborhood and other organizations, served on the board of the Main Line Adult Day Care Center in Bryn Mawr, was a member of the Washington-based National Association of Social Workers, and addressed civic leaders and local and state policy makers on elder rights.

“She was a born social worker,” said former colleague Dorothy McCabe. “She was knowledgeable, compassionate, and capable. She taught me a lot.”

In 1989, Mrs. Hartzell became the first director of social work at Waverly Heights retirement community in Gladwyne and, among other projects, created vibrant support groups for residents and families. She retired in 1998. “An absolutely wonderful woman,” a friend said in an online tribute.

Earlier in her career, in the 1950s, Mrs. Hartzell was a social worker at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and resident intern counselor for teens at Brown University’s Bradley Psychiatric Hospital in Rhode Island.

She went on to work in the adoption services department of the New York State Charities Aid Association and as a social worker at New York Hospital, now Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Born Feb. 22, 1928, in Lancaster, Pa., Molly Storb graduated from Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., in 1949. Declining her family’s suggestion to become a secretary, she returned to Massachusetts and earned a master’s degree in social work from Boston University in 1953.

She met Frank Hartzell after moving to New York, and they married in 1958. The couple moved to Wynnewood, raised son David and daughter Mimi, and retired to Waverly Heights in 2011.

Mrs. Hartzell was an expert at making friends and volunteered at United Way and her children’s schools as they grew up. She liked to write personal notes for birthdays and other occasions and kept in touch with friends during hard times.

She became active at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church in 1967 and served as an elder, Stephen Minister, and on the mission and nominating committees. She spent summers at Cape May and Avalon and often beat her husband and children at Scrabble and horseshoes during vacations at their cabin in northeastern Ontario, Canada.

“Mom’s main joy in life was people,” said her daughter. “The world needs more Mollys in it.”

Introspective as well as engaging, Mrs. Hartzell kept a journal of wishes, and, not surprisingly, it focused as often on others as herself. “Celebrate my life because it has been wonderful to me,” she wrote in one entry. “Friends and family have made it so.”

In addition to her husband and children, Mrs. Hartzell is survived by six grandchildren, a brother, and other relatives.

A service is to be held at 11 a.m. Friday, June 3, at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, 625 Montgomery Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010.

Donations in her name may be made to Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, 625 Montgomery Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010, and ElderNet, 9 South Bryn Mawr Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010.