Fessler, Mary McClintock Ryland, 1912-2000
Biographical Note
Mary McClintock Ryland Fessler (1912-2000) was active in Montgomery County Democratic Party, local government, and civic organizations from the late 1960s through the 1990s. She was a founding member of the Montgomery County League of Women Voters, organized in 1971, and Secretary of the Montgomery County Democratic Committee in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She was appointed to the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors in 1977 and served from 1977 to 1985.
Fessler was born in Georgetown, Kentucky, on February 6, 1912. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Westhampton College (now the University of Richmond) in 1932. She taught in the North China American School in Tun Chow, China, and several American schools before moving to Blacksburg in 1951. Her husband, Donald R. Fessler, was a sociologist with the Virginia Tech Extension Service.