Mary Buryk Aufderheide

Mary Lillian Buryk Aufderheide was born in International Falls, MN on Jan. 13, 1923 to John and Frozina Buryk, who had immigrated from what is now Ukraine. She died June 21, 2017 in Duluth.

During her years at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing (1940-45), where she earned a BS/RN, she met and married Arthur Carl Aufderheide. They shared 68 years of marriage, in which Mary became an essential partner in Dr. Aufderheide’s research into paleopathology. In The Global History of Paleopathology (Oxford), she is described as having “played a key role in the development of soft tissue paleopathology.” Mary brought to her research a gift for languages, an ability to engage people in many situations and across cultural divides, and her medical knowledge.Dulut

She also worked as a nurse intermittently throughout her life, first at Minneapolis General Hospital, where she worked through a polio epidemic with the renowned medical innovator Sister Elizabeth Kenny; she later worked at Rochester General Hospital in Rochester, NY, at the University of Minnesota-Duluth Health Service and finally as a supervisor at the Lakeshore Lutheran Home.

It was Arthur Aufderheide’s career choice to work at St. Mary’s hospital that brought the Aufderheides to Duluth in 1954. While raising three children, Mary also became involved as both actor and singer in local theater and musical theater, and was choir director of the former St. Luke’s Lutheran Church.

An accomplished violinist, Mary often said she found music her “greatest joy.” She studied violin as a child, with support from her beloved godfather Walter Semeniuk. Her first keyboard instrument was the accordion, on which she played for dances at her high school. She played violin in the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra for five years under the direction of Hermann Herz, and for 38 years in the University of Minnesota-Duluth Symphony Orchestra, in the latter years under the direction of Rudy Perrault.

In her later years, when not on expeditions with her husband, she was an active volunteer, among other things reading to St. Michael’s School first and second graders. She was a supporter of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, UMD Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Ballet, and Matinee Musicale. At the age of 90, she played in the operas “Die Fledermaus” and “Cinderella,” both directed by Rudy Perrault.

She was predeceased by her husband Arthur Aufderheide in 2013, and is survived by her children Patricia (Stephan Schwartzman), Tom (Anne Robertson) and Walter (Denise Holt), and by three grandchildren: Elias, Gabriel and Arik.

Gathering of family and friends, Sunday August 27, 2017,  1:30 pm until the 2:00pm Memorial Service at the UMD Kirby Student Center  Ballroom, 1120 Kirby Drive, Duluth MN 55812, a reception will follow from 3pm to 5pm .

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be directed to the Mary L. and Arthur C. Aufderheide, M.D., Scholarship - 11534 C/O University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth campus Attn: Heather Heart 1035 University Dr. #107 Duluth, MN 55812 https://give.umn.edu/giveto/Aufderheide.

Arrangements by Dougherty Funeral Home, 600 East 2nd Str. Duluth MN 55805 218-727-3555