Hanover, NH – Mary Lincoln passed away peacefully at Kendal in Hanover, NH, on Thursday morning, February 12, 2026, at 97. Her strength of spirit, devotion to others, and passion for her family, friends, favorite causes, and life were, and will remain, an inspiration.
Born Mary Fahnestock Richardson on October 7, 1928, in Greenwich, CT, to Charlotte Fahnestock and Thomas de Quartel Richardson III, she was raised by her mother after her parents divorced. She attended Greenwich Academy, where she was President of the Athletic Association and a field hockey star. After graduation, she elected to remain in Greenwich to provide support for her mother and worked at Greenwich Country Day school while taking courses at Merrill Business School in Stamford and extension classes at the University of Connecticut.
At eighteen, she and three friends rode their bikes six miles from Greenwich to Rye, NY, and crashed a formal dance at the Apawamis Club in their blue jeans, which led a young Princeton undergrad named John Lincoln to cut in and ask her for a dance. Two years later, on September 9, 1949, the couple were married in Greenwich. They settled on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where John pursued a Masters in English at Columbia University and Mary worked for TIME Magazine in the direct mail department. A year later, John joined the English department at The Choate School in Wallingford, CT, and Mary, always brave, embraced being a dorm mother to 60 adolescent boys.
In 1952, she gave birth to her own boy, Peter McLure Lincoln, who was followed four years later by Christopher Scott Lincoln. In 1960, she and John went to Greece for a two-year appointment at Athens College, where the family explored the country and traveled widely across Europe during vacations. Returning to Choate in 1962, Mary gave birth to a third son, Brian Hoover Lincoln.
In the mid ’60s, committed to serving underprivileged high school students, Mary and John spent three summers in Hanover as part of the A Better Chance (ABC) Program, sponsored by the Tucker Foundation at Dartmouth College. In 1969, when John joined the Dartmouth English department, Mary took a job in the Dartmouth College Athletic Department ticket office and soon became its manager. Five years later, Athletic Director Seaver Peters asked her to apply to become Business Manager of the Athletic Department; she was hired, making her the first woman to hold that role in the Ivy League (and one, remarkably, without a college degree). From 1979-1989, Mary oversaw the business side of Dartmouth’s intercollegiate athletic program, which encompassed over 30 varsity sports, plus major intramural and physical education programs.
Following her retirement, she and John traveled widely and spent winters at a second home in Naples, Florida. When John suffered a near fatal aortic aneurysm and subsequent stroke, Mary became his full-time caregiver for 13 years until his death at 83, on the eve of their 60th anniversary. Living at The Greens in Hanover, she served on the board until 2020, when she moved to Kendal, where she joined the Residents Council and Welcoming Committee and enjoyed being part of an ‘HH’ (Happy Hour) group. Over the years, she organized a staggering 33 different moves to residences at Choate, in Hanover, Norwich, Cape Cod, Maine, and Florida, buying, selling, renovating, and furnishing properties.
Mary loved living in northern New England and served on many volunteer boards in Connecticut and the Upper Valley, including the Dresden ABC Board, Planned Parenthood of the Upper Valley, Town of Hanover Finance Committee, and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, which recognized her and John with the Amsden Award for Volunteers of the Year. She was among the first women welcomed into the Hanover Rotary.
Young at heart, with a lively spirit, Mary was ahead of her time and fiercely independent, still driving her car at age 96 to fetch favorite items at the Hanover Food Co-op. She was a gifted athlete who played tennis into her late 80’s, and loved working in her gardens, a good party, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Louise Penny novels, and spending time with her extended family. Her three secrets to a long life: a rare steak, dark chocolate, and Maker’s Mark bourbon (a.k.a. Mary’s Mark). She may be gone, but her light shines brightly in our hearts, souls, and memories.
Mary was predeceased by her husband, John, and her older brother, Thomas de Quartel Richardson IV. She is survived by her sons Peter (Susan Kantrowitz), Chris (Cecy), and Brian (Robin); by her grandsons, Nolan (Christy) and Nick; her granddaughter, Izzy, and her step-grandsons, Billy and Ryan Colbert; and by her great grandchildren, Riley and Briggs. The family would like to thank her longstanding physician, Adam Schwarz, for his insightful and loving care over many decades, and the medical staff at Kendal for their wonderful treatment of Mary over her final weeks. A celebration of her life will be held at Kendal on March 21 at 1 pm. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests making a donation to your favorite charity in Mary’s name.
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