Mildred Tymeson Petrie, author of Two Towers, dies

Mrs. Petrie is the author of Two Towers: The Story of Worcester Tech, 1865-1965. In 1962, President Harry P. Storke commissioned Mrs. Petrie (then Mrs. Tymeson) to write the history of WPI's first 100 years. President Storke received glowing recommendations about Mrs. Tymeson, a local author who had written several well-received corporate histories.

Mrs. Tymeson searched through college archives and interviewed more than 80 people during two years of research and writing in order to compile the most comprehensive history of WPI possible. She was very interested in writing WPI's history, a feeling which was strengthened by "significant links" to WPI she found while writing histories for Norton Company, Wyman-Gordon, the Worcester County National Bank, and Worcester's Rural Cemetary. "Clearly, WPI had been a key element in the growth of Worcester during its first century," she noted. "I knew there was a great story here."

In 1969, Mrs. Tymeson established what is considered to be one of WPI's most prestigious student awards. This is the Two Towers Award, "given to the student who, through general academic competence, campus leadership, regular course work, and special work in research and projects, best exemplifies a combined proficiency in the theoretical and practical union implicit in the Two Towers concept, which is at the heart of the Two Towers tradition." (from the WPI Undergraduate Catalog)

Mrs. Petrie leaves her husband of 28 years, George W. Petrie III; and a nephew. Her first husband, Ralph Tymeson, died many years ago. She was born in Knowlton, Quebec, daughter of Rodney H. and Sayde M. (Lanphear) McClary, and later lived in Ohio and Washington, D.C. She then lived many years in Holden before moving to Sarasota, Florida in 1967. She was graduated from Atlantic Union College in 1933 and earned a master's degree is musicology from Boston University in 1947. She then studied creative writing at Harvard University Graduate School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mrs. Petrie was the author of 24 books, mainly on history and biography, including histories of several major businesses and their leaders in Worcester, Mass. She also wrote industrial movies, magazine articles, essays, and poems. Last year, she compiled the memoirs of her husband, one of IBM's first applied scientists and a pioneer in the computer industry. She was also a pianist and choir director for many years in Holden.

In 1980, Mrs. Petrie founded the Sarasota Music Archive and was its president until she retired. In 1977, she initiated the WUSF Radio Reading Service for the Blind and Handicapped in Sarasota. She was a member and former branch president of the National League of American Pen Women. She was a member of the Authors League and the Authors Guild. She was an honorary member of Sigma Alpha Iota, the international music fraternity.