Margaret K. Musil Margaret K. Musil

Long-time Garden City civic leader and pioneering religious educator, Margaret Kirkland Musil, 91, died on April 16, 2007, from complications following surgery. Mrs. Musil was named the Garden City Citizen of the Year in 1996. She served as President of the Garden City Community Club, as well as Regent of the Colonel Aaron Ogden Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She also served as DAR local and state Chair of American History and awarded the DAR History Award to Garden City students for many years. In addition, Mrs. Musil headed the Women's Auxiliary of Winthrop University Hospital where she helped start the Child Life Center and was a volunteer in pediatrics for over twenty years.

Mrs. Musil served as the Director of Christian Education at the Rockville Centre United Church and trained numerous Directors of Christian Education and Sunday School teachers at the annual Presbyterian Leadership Training School at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. She also helped develop national curriculum for the Presbyterians and the United Church of Christ and was widely sought after by churches to help develop new programs and train teachers.

Mrs. Musil hosted a weekly Sunday morning educational program on NBC-TV in 1960, served on the Boards of the Metropolitan and New York State Conferences of the United Church of Christ, and was a leader in the Garden City Community Church for nearly 60 years. Mrs. Musil also taught education at C.W. Post University and New York University.

Born in Essex, Connecticut, in 1915, Mrs. Musil was educated at Mills College in New York City and taught kindergarten at Miss Travers' School before moving to Garden City in 1948 with her late husband, Ralph A. Musil. She completed her education under a Ford Foundation experimental program for women returning to higher education, receiving an M.A. at Brooklyn College and a Master's degree at New York Theological Seminary. She is survived by two children, Marjorie Anne Musil of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and Robert Kirkland Musil of Bethesda, Maryland, as well as two grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the Garden City Community Church or Winthrop University Hospital.