Obituary of Morton T. Saunders

Mort’s loving parents were Dorothy (Love) and William Lawrence (“Larry”) Saunders. He was raised on Idlewild Farm in Bryn Mawr, PA, with his 4 siblings, Patricia “Patsy”, Grier, Nancy Gail, and Sally. He attended boarding school at St. Paul’s in Concord, NH. He attended Williams College and received his MBA from the University of Virginia. He married Harriet (Martin) in 1961 and had his 3 children, Morton Jr. (“Nick”), Edmond Randolph (“Randy”), and Sydney Fox. In 1973 he married the love of his life, Deirdre L. Dixon. They shared 30 wonderful years together, enjoying travel, and a shared love of skiing, and sailing. 

After completing his MBA, Morton worked for his family publishing company WB Saunders Medical Publishing company. He also worked at  Edward Hay and Associates, performing management consulting before starting his own successful off-set printing shops  (Dixon-Saunders Printing). 

Morton was an avid sailor and raced one-design racing sailboats in the one ton class in such famous races as the Newport (RI) to Bermuda (Nassau) twice. He also enjoy in his young adult life sailing in the  Cape Cod Knockabout class out of the Woods Hole Yacht Club, Woods Hole, MA and finally in the Herashoff Day Sailor Class out of Quissett Harbor Yacht Club, Quissett Harbor, MA. Morton loved to be on the water, sailing.

His love of sailing was matched only by his love skiing and he was devoted to the support of the sport and sat on the board of the Stratton Mountain School (an independent boarding and day school focusing on Academics and Competitive Winter Sports) for many many years and enjoyed skiing at Stratton Mountain with family and friends.

Morton taught us how to be kind and how to be fair. Through his actions, we learned the importance of hard work and of making a positive impact in the lives of others. When Mort made a decision to do something, he did it efficiently, swiftly, and with a wickedly dry sense of humor.

He is survived by his sisters (Nancy Gail and Sally), his three children, Morton, Jr, (Coryne), Randy (Sarah), and Sydney (Vahe), his 5 grandchildren (Alia, Weatherly, Teddy, Caleb, and Penelope), and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

A memorial will be held at 11:00AM on Saturday, January 11th at Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr, PA, followed by a reception at Sunnybrook Golf Club, Plymouth Meeting, PA. 

In lieu of flowers, in Morton’s memory, please make a donation to the Quissett Harbor Preservation Trust (qhpt.org).