Mary Helen (Martin) Goldsmith

Mary Helen Goldsmith passed away peacefully on October 2, 2024, at Whitney Center in Hamden, Connecticut. Born in Boston, MA on May 2, 1933, Mary Helen grew up in College Park, Maryland with her parents Monroe and Virginia Martin. While in high school she met the love of her life, Timothy Goldsmith, when they both had roles in the school play. The couple went to college together, married, went to graduate school together, and served as professors in the same department at Yale University for four decades.

Mary Helen was a pioneering researcher, teacher, and advocate for women in the sciences. She graduated from Cornell University in 1955 and went on to earn a PhD in Plant Physiology from Harvard in 1959. As a tenured Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale she taught undergraduate and graduate students, served two terms as Master of Silliman College, one of Yale’s undergraduate Colleges, and was Director of the Marsh Botanical Gardens. While at Yale Mary Helen played a leading role in creating a new major in Environmental Studies. Mary Helen was also elected President of the American Society of Plant Physiologists and was an authority on how auxin, the plant growth hormone, moves through the vascular system of plants. She loved the natural world and was an avid botanist, gardener, and birdwatcher.

In addition to her academic achievements, Mary Helen was a devoted daughter, loving wife, and a caring mother to her two children, Ken Goldsmith, and Margee Challa. She particularly enjoyed the family summers in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, sailing, socializing with life-long friends, and bringing lunches to the beach for the whole family.

Mary Helen is survived by her husband Tim; children Ken and Margee; as well as four grandchildren, Elizabeth Golden, Varun Challa, Jeffrey Charles Goldsmith, and Avelyn Goldsmith. 

Funeral services will remain private at this time. 

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