Mary R. Van Hollen, a retired parochial school educator and volunteer, died Tuesday of melanoma at her Towson home. She was 88.
Mary Ruppert, the daughter of a mechanic and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Pikesville.
After graduating from Seton High School in 1939, she earned a bachelor's degree in education in 1943 from St. Joseph College in Emmitsburg.
She was married in 1946 to Louis H. Van Hollen, an estimator for the Knott Construction Co., and settled in Catonsville.
While living and raising her children in Catonsville for 35 years, Mrs. Van Hollen was a substitute teacher at St. Mark's parochial school and St. Agnes Elementary School.
After her children were grown, Mrs. Van Hollen returned to teaching biology full time at Archbishop Keogh High School from 1968 until retiring in 1984.
Mrs. Van Hollen, who lived in Towson after 1987, was a longtime volunteer at the Little Sisters of the Poor nursing home in Catonsville.
She also was an accomplished watercolorist, cross stitcher, and bridge player.
Services will be held at 7:30 p.m. today at the Ruck Towson Funeral Home, 1050 York Road.
In addition to her husband of 63 years, Mrs. Van Hollen is survived by three sons, Louis H. Van Hollen of Cumberland, Christopher Van Hollen of Millers and Gregory Van Hollen of Chicago; two daughters, Mary Candice Chesno of Catonsville and Anne Madden of Jacobus, Pa.; nine grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.