Margery M. Ambrosius

Born on May 14, 1942, to Wilbert W. Marzahn and Mary L. (Warner) Marzahn in Des Moines, Iowa, Margery died at home in Lincoln, Nebraska, on January 30, 2018.  She is survived by her sister Kathryn (Kenneth) Conklin of Fishers, Indiana, and her brothers William (Lynda) Marzahn of Coventry, Rhode Island, and Charles (Carol) Marzahn of Leland, North Carolina.  She is also survived by her husband Lloyd E. Ambrosius and their sons Walter T. Ambrosius (Leslie Underwood) of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Paul W. Ambrosius (Valerie Daugherty) of Nashville, Tennessee, and by her grandchildren Michael Ambrosius of Nashville and Emma Ambrosius of Winston-Salem.  She married Lloyd on August 24, 1963, when both of them were students at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  In 1967, they moved to Lincoln when he joined the University of Nebraska faculty in the Department of History.  She became an active volunteer and stay-at-home mother.

Marge earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in History from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Nebraska.  In 1986, she joined the faculty of Kansas State University as an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science.  After earning tenure and promotion to associate professor, she retired in 1998 but remained active in her profession as co-author of a prominent textbook for introductory political science courses on American government.  In retirement, she also volunteered as a mediator in the courts of Lincoln, Nebraska, particularly in cases involving small claims and family disputes.

Marge was an active member and leader in the United Methodist Church (UMC).  In 1999, she helped form a new partnership between the Nigerian UMC and the Nebraska Conference of the UMC.  Along with the UMC bishop of Nebraska, she traveled to Jalingo, Nigeria, to meet the Nigerian UMC bishop and other church leaders.  They decided that their highest priority for the Nigeria-Nebraska partnership was the construction of an orphanage for children who had lost both parents and did not have extended families who could care for them.  Marge chaired the committee of the Nebraska Conference that began to promote the Nigerian UMC orphanage and raise funds to support it.  In 2004, she returned to Jalingo with a mission team to complete the construction of the orphanage and to buy the equipment that would be needed to care for the children and the books and supplies for their elementary education.  The new orphanage opened with 48 children.  She continued promoting and raising funds for the Nigerian orphanage in the Nebraska Conference.  In 2007, she returned to Jalingo with another Nebraska UMC bishop and a mission team that worked on improvements at the orphanage.  They also joined their Nigerian partners to celebrate the official dedication of the orphanage.  Over the years it expanded until the orphanage now has 100 children who live and attend elementary school there and 19 more who attend secondary school.

Having learned to make jewelry with beads as another retirement activity, Marge decided to combine this interest with her passion for the children in the Nigerian orphanage.  She began selling the necklaces, earrings, and bracelets that she had made at the annual conference of the Nebraska Conference of the UMC as a fund-raiser to support the orphanage.  She also sold the jewelry at Saint Paul UMC, Lincoln, and at other local churches.  After the Nebraska Conference joined the two Kansas conferences to become the Great Plains Conference of the UMC, she continued promoting the orphanage and selling jewelry to support it.  Over the past decade she made and sold enough jewelry to provide about $55,000 for the orphanage.  This total amount went to the Nigerian orphanage from the conference treasurer (of first the Nebraska Conference and then the Great Plains Conference) through the General Board of Global Ministries of the UMC, and on to the treasurer of the Nigerian UMC.

To honor Marge’s crucial role in founding and supporting the Nigerian UMC Orphanage, her family is asking that, rather than flowers, donations might be given to the orphanage.  Make checks payable to the Great Plains Conference.  Write Advance #300 Nigerian Orphanage in the memo line.  Send checks to:

Conference Treasurer

Great Plains Conference

United Methodist Church

PO Box 4187

Topeka, KS 66604-0187

Alternatively, make checks payable to the Saint Paul United Methodist Church.  Write Advance #300 Nigerian Orphanage in the memo line.  Place checks in an offering plate at a worship service or send them to:

Saint Paul United Methodist Church

1144 M Street

Lincoln, NE 68508

A memorial service will be held at Saint Paul UMC at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 17, 2018.  A luncheon will follow in the church’s family life center.

Condolences to www.aspenaftercare.com.

A memorial service was held on Saturday, March 17, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Paul United Methodist Church, 1144 M Street in Lincoln.  Condolences to www.aspenaftercare.com.  Rather than flowers, please donate to the Nigerian United Methodist Church Orphanage.  Make the check payable to the Great Plains Conference.  Write “Advance #300” in the memo line and send it to:

Conference Treasurer

Great Plains Conference

PO Box 4187

Topeka, KS 66604-0187