Marion Bratesmanformerly of Norwich, died February 4th, at the age of 99, in Portland, Maine from complications of dementia. She was best known for her work at Dartmouth beginning in 1960 as the original director of public relations for the Hopkins Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, two years before the Center opened. A year before her retirement in 1985, she left the Hop to become the founding director of information for Dartmouth's Hood Museum of Art.

In both positions, she brought national and international attention to creative activities and performances at Dartmouth in publications such as Time, Newsweek, Life Magazine, the Boston Globe, New York Times, and on CBC Radio, the Today Show and other local and network television. In the course of her career, she worked with many of the leading actors, playwrights, directors, artists, sculptors, musicians and composers of the 20th Century. She was also very gratified to know and work with so many talented faculty and students at Dartmouth, and with her colleagues at the Hop and Hood. In the late 1960s, she became the first woman in Dartmouth's history to achieve the status of an Officer of the College.

Marion Ethel Norris was born in Lebanon, N.H. on November 11, 1915 to Charles Calvin Norris, Sr. and the former Florence May Sanborn. At the age of 9, in the wake of her parent's divorce, she moved with her mother and older brother to Boston where she later graduated from Girl's Latin School. After attending Northeastern University for two years during the Great Depression, she left college to start a career in advertising where she quickly became an account manager. She later moved to New York where she became Promotions Director at Cosmopolitan when it was a popular literary magazine. After the outbreak of World War II, she returned to Boston where she volunteered as an air raid warden. In 1946, she volunteered in John F. Kennedy's first campaign for Congress.

In the early 1950's she moved back to New York where she worked as an advertising executive at Transportation Displays Inc. (TDI) in their main office in Grand Central Terminal. The location offered her the opportunity to watch Alfred Hitchcock film a scene for "North by Northwest".

In 1952, she married Stuart Bratesman, Sr., the head art director at Lever Brothers. After they separated in 1958, she returned to Lebanon. Prior to working at Dartmouth, she worked as a saleswoman at Campion's in Hanover. She also did occasional secretarial and promotional work for the Lebanon Regional Airport Authority and the Lebanon Red Cross.

During the years she worked at Dartmouth, she resided in Hanover and worshipped at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. After retirement, she moved to Norwich where she remained active in Upper Valley affairs, serving on the boards of Lebanon College and the Hanover Co-op, as Vice-Chair of the Norwich Town Democratic Committee, and as a member of the Norwich Board of Listers.

In 2009, she moved to an assisted living facility in Portland, Maine to be closer to her son. Since 2010, she received excellent dementia care at Portland's Barron Center nursing facility, for which her family is very grateful.

She was predeceased by husband, her brother, Charles Calvin Norris, Jr. and her sister, Wilhelmina C. Farris. She is survived by her son, Stuart Bratesman, Jr. and his wife, Barbara Asnes of Freeport, Maine and Quechee, Vermont and by a number of nephews and nieces.

Funeral services will be held in Hanover, New Hampshire 11:00 am Tuesday February 10th at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, followed by burial at Glenwood Cemetery in Lebanon. There are no visiting hours. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in her name to the Hopkins Center and sent to:

Director's Office
Hopkins Center
Dartmouth College
HB 6041
Hanover, NH 03755