Mary S. Corboy, city farm pioneer

Mary Seton Corboy, 58, of Philadelphia, an urban pioneer whose farm on a former factory site in Kensington brought fresh produce and other locally grown foods to the inner city, died Aug. 7 of complications from cancer at Jefferson University Hospital.

Ms. Corboy was a chef with a master's degree in political science from Villanova University, and her love of cooking drove her early career as she worked in restaurants. All the while, though, she sought to build "something different that could marry her passion for good, healthy food and her love of physical labor," her friends said in a tribute.

In 1998, she found that vehicle in Greensgrow, a one-acre lot at 2501 E. Cumberland St. on which she built raised gardens and greenhouses to grow herbs and produce. What she couldn't produce she had trucked in from local growers: peaches from South Jersey, tomatoes from Lancaster County, and meats, cheeses, and breads from farms within a short drive of Philadelphia.

The project was intended to breathe life into the long-neglected Philadelphia neighborhood - and it did.

"It's a little piece of heaven," neighbor Janet McGinnis told the New York Times in May 2008. "We live in the city, and it makes me feel good to wake up and see flowers."

Greensgrow, created with business partner Tom Sereduk, soon became one of the nation's most innovative urban farms and a model of how city truck gardening could make money. In 2015, her nonprofit farm with 45 employees reported a yearly income of $1.5 million.

It also fulfilled Ms. Corboy's dream of using cutting-edge sustainable farming practices such as hydroponics. "We like to say we took this place from abandoned to abundant," she told the Smithsonian magazine last year.

R. William Thomas, executive director of the foundation that runs Chanticleer Garden in Wayne, said Ms. Corboy and he swapped visits - she to the lush Chanticleer, he to the productive Greensgrow.

"I am a huge admirer of Mary's," he said. She had faith in the city and her neighborhood, and faith that "plants would make it better. . . . She used her vision, perseverance, and drive to make it work."

Born in Washington, Ms. Corboy graduated from St. Anthony High School there, and earned a bachelor's degree from Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., before doing graduate work at Villanova.

"Mary inherited the family gift for storytelling and relished regaling friends with the hilarious stories of growing up with seven siblings in a family reared in Washington, Ethiopia, and rural Pennsylvania," said friend Donna Cooper.

Ms. Corboy was happiest when the lines blurred between friends and extended family at parties, vacations, and projects that cemented her network of fans.

For a while she served as a property manager for Andrew Wyeth, the Chadds Ford painter. He used her as a model for The Liberal, a portrait that captured her beauty and strength.

Ms. Corboy's success vaulted her into esteemed company: In 2016, the nonprofit Food Tank honored her as one of the nation's 17 "Farmer Heroes."

The group praised her "for not only growing vegetables, but changing attitudes around food."

The blossoming of Greensgrow coincided with Ms. Corboy's own battle with endometrial cancer. Diagnosed 12 years ago, she beat the disease, but suffered complications from the treatment. "I'm proud to talk to other people . . . and see if in some way my experience can make theirs a little easier," she told friends.

Jerry Naples, a friend and Greensgrow board member, said her grit in working while coping with her health complications was extraordinary. "She had challenges that would stop other people in their tracks," he said.

Although Ms. Corboy took life seriously and pursued change for the good, she was neither somber nor serious in person. She could be charming, sassy, and funny.

When Philadelphia magazine awarded Ms. Corboy the Philadelphian of the Year in 2008, the magazine wrote: "Armed with a BlackBerry and a sarcastic wit, Mary Seton Corboy is showing Philadelphia that the solution might be right beneath our feet."

Ms. Corboy never married. She is survived by four sisters; three brothers; and 12 nieces and nephews.

Plans for services were pending.

Memorial donations may be made to Greensgrow, 2501 E. Cumberland St., Philadelphia 19125, or through www.greensgrow.org.

bcook@phillynews.com

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