Martha C. Slotten

Martha Calvert Slotten, 91, of Carlisle, died Thursday, August 22, 2013, at Thornwald Home in Carlisle.
Born on March 25, 1922, in Springfield, Ohio, to J. Donald and Mildred (Henley) Calvert, she was raised a Quaker in the small community of Selma, Ohio.
Her family's roots in the Society of Friends (Quakers) were deep. Like many of her family members, she was a graduate of Earlham College, a historically Quaker college in Richmond, Indiana. She was a founding and active member of the Carlisle Friends Meeting.
After graduating from college in 1943, she worked as a high school teacher and administrator in Ohio and Michigan. She held two master's degrees, one in English literature from the University of Wisconsin and one in history from Shippensburg State College. While serving with the American Friends Service Committee, Institutional Service Units, she met her future spouse, Ralph L. Slotten, whom she married in 1957.
After Ralph joined the religion department at Dickinson College, she became research assistant to Charles Coleman Sellers in his writing of Dickinson's bicentennial history. In 1972 she became Acting Curator at Dickinson, eventually becoming the college's Archivist and Special Collections Librarian.
She prepared a number of exhibits featuring Dickinson's collections and was the author of scholarly publications, including a study of the eighteenth-century poet Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson. She served as both vice-chair and secretary of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) and was an archival consultant for various colleges and universities. In 1992, she received a Distinguished Service Award from MARAC.
Her civic contributions were numerous. She was a charter member of the group that created the Carlisle Regional Performing Arts Center. Particularly interested in the history of Carlisle, she gave talks on this subject and was a founding member and officer of the Carlisle Preservation Alliance. In 1982, she authored From St. James Square to Tannery Row: Carlisle's Old East Side, published by the Bosler Free Library. Very active in the Democratic Party throughout her years in Carlisle, she was a Democratic Committee Person, a Carlisle Area Democratic Leader, and a dedicated campaign organizer. In 2001, she received the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Award for Outstanding Leadership and Service, given by the Cumberland County Democratic Committee.
She and Ralph greatly loved literature, especially poetry. As members of the Retired Professionals of Dickinson College, they hosted well-attended gatherings for poetry reading at their home, which she continued after Ralph's death in 2007.
She is survived by her daughter, Amy C. (and her husband, Robert) Schutt of Hamilton, N.Y.; her son, Hugh R. Slotten of Dunedin, New Zealand; her grandsons, Thomas and David Schutt; and her brother James D. Calvert.
Memorial services will be held at the Stern Center at Dickenson College on Saturday, November 23, 2013 at 4:00 pm.
Memorial gifts may be made to the American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102.
Arrangements are being handled by Hoffman-Roth Funeral Home and Crematory Inc. 219 N. Hanover St. Carlisle, PA 17013.
To sign the guestbook visit www.hoffmanroth.com.