Polly Dunn

Mary "Polly" Constance Harvey Dunn, 93, formerly of Jarrettown, PA, died peacefully of pneumonia Thursday, October 21, 2021 in her skilled care room at Foulkeways at Gwynedd, Gwynedd PA.

Born in New Haven CT, she was the daughter of the late Sidney Wright Harvey and Margaret Elizabeth (Rupp) Harvey.

Polly was the loving wife for 53 years of the late John "Mike" Malcolm Dunn, MD. Polly is survived by a son, Lawrence Wright Dunn (wife LiYing Li) of Denver, CO, and a daughter, Constance Robb Dunn (husband Bob Bradshaw) of Jamaica Plain MA. She was preceded in death by son Andrew Ferguson and infant son Brian Conway, her brother Steven Rupp Harvey and her sister Susan Wright Harvey.

For 30 years she served a long and successful career as a social worker at Central Montgomery MH/MR Center, Norristown, PA. Polly was a 1951 graduate of Hood College, Frederick MD, and in 1953 earned her Master of Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania.

A true extrovert, Polly will be missed by so many who loved her. She's remembered for her generosity, outspokenness, sense of humor, and endless curiosity. She enjoyed meeting new people, learning their life story, and committing their names to memory, which was one of her many enduring strengths, even to her last days on this earth. In regards to her own name, her frequent refrain was "I don't answer to Mary!".

She was a woman ahead of her time, subscribing to the first issue of "Ms. Magazine". She often bucked conventional expectations. Her strong sense of character left a mark on anyone fortunate enough to know and love her. She touched and changed countless lives for the better.  For many years after retiring, Polly volunteered to be a hospice visitor. Also, in her later years, it became customary for her to offer a spare bed to anyone in need.

Polly loved adventure, trying anything new, which is how and why she met her first love – the French horn. In grade school, on a whim, she accompanied a friend to her music lesson and the teacher suggested she, too, could play an instrument. The French horn was the instrument he had available so she took it. This led to a life-long passion of daily practice, playing in local community orchestras, and in 1977 attending her first of many annual International Horn Society workshops, which led to worldwide travel and many long-lasting friendships she liked to call her "horny friends".

Meeting Mike, her second love, was also a match made in heaven.  Although they had many independent interests, they were supportive of each others passions. One passion, for Polly, was travel. Together they traveled to many far-away places, including Greece, China and Russia.

Memorial services will be held 2:30 p.m. (Monday) November 22 at BuxMont Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, at Street Road just east of Route 611 (Easton Road) in Warrington PA.  For those who would like to attend via Zoom, please use the following link: https://uuma.zoom.us/j/ 94580477865?pwd= R0ZISlgrUHFZbUZGTmwxQjhjaXhJUT 09

Her ashes will be interred in the family plot at Riverview Cemetery in Huntingdon PA at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Polly's memory can be made to Plan International USA (https://www.planusa.org), BuxMont Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (www.buxmontuu.org), or Star Island (https://starisland.org).