Marion B. Osing, former Howard County educator, dies

Marion B. Osing, a retired Howard County educator who was an avid walker, died March 28 from respiratory failure at Sunrise of Columbia assisted living community. The former Ellicott City resident was 92.

Marion Beck was the daughter of George Washington Beck, who owned Beck's Bakery, and Ottilie Lucke Beck, a homemaker.

She was born in Baltimore and raised above her family's Edmondson Avenue bakery, where as a child she assisted her parents in the operation of the business.

She was a 1944 graduate of Western High School.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 77

Nancy Wilson, an award-winning jazz singer who was a crossover recording star for five decades and also an actress, died Dec. 13 at her California home. She was 81. Read more. (Kirk McKoy/Los Angeles Times)

In high school she met her future husband, Frederick C. Osing Jr. He was a City College student, and they performed in a play together. They both enrolled at then-Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College, in Westminster, from which she obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1948.

She and her husband married that same year, and later moved to Ellicott City.

Mrs. Osing began substitute teaching in 1965 at Mount Hebron High School and subsequently joined the full-time math faculty. She later became chair of the department.

A popular teacher, she often encountered students she had taught years ago who expressed their appreciation for her instruction, family members said.

In addition to walking, Mrs. Osing enjoyed traveling, attending Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concerts, going out to dinner and completing Sudoku and jigsaw puzzles.

She was an accomplished cross-stitcher and was known for her samplers.

Mrs. Osing and her husband moved in 2005 to the Riderwood Village Retirement Center in Silver Spring, where she enjoyed playing bridge and organized a bridge club.

Mr. Osing, former chairman of the English department at Catonsville High School, died in 2009.

After moving to Sunrise of Columbia two months ago, she continued taking walks, family members said.

She was a longtime member of First Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in Ellicott City.

Private services were held April 5 at Crestlawn Memorial Gardens.

Mrs. Osing is survived by a son, George Osing of Ellicott City; three daughters, Carol Good of Ellicott City, Janet Weber of Arlington, Va., and Laura Robinson of Northfield, Mass.; 10 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

— Frederick N. Rasmussen

fred.rasmussen@baltsun.com