Remembering a Camden force for education

The Camden school Marcy Dalsey helped build was renamed in her memory Friday, on what would have been her 60th birthday.

The Haddonfield mother of four died in the fiery crash of a private jet May 31 in Massachusetts. A National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said Friday the investigation continues.

The crash killed six other people, including philanthropist, businessman, and Inquirer owner Lewis Katz, who together with Dalsey founded what will be known from now on as the Katz Dalsey Academy Charter School.

"Marcy's laughter, enthusiasm, and love will forever be embedded in the fabric of this school," board president Zulma Gonzalez-Lombardo told about 75 people in the gymnasium at the school's Parkside campus.

She described Dalsey as the academy's "catalyst, rowdiest cheerleader, and greatest advocate . . . a magnificent woman we'll love and miss forever."

Moving, uplifting, and entertaining, Friday's hour-long event featured some of Dalsey's favorite things: Family, friends, Academy students, and Secret Garden's anthem "Dawn of a New Century."

Loved ones and colleagues spoke of her energy and passion and of her ability to inspire.

"You're carrying a little light inside [from] someone who believed in you," Joseph Conway, founder of the Camden Charter School Network, told about 30 students in the audience.

There was even a bit of showbiz razzmatazz in the form of a video clip from a 1998 Haddonfield Plays and Players production of Pippin. It showcased Dalsey's showstopping, scene-stealing turn as Grandma Berthe, singing "No Time at All."

"My mom really didn't like getting attention for all the charity work she did," Chelsea Dalsey, 29, told the crowd. "But she definitely wasn't shy about stepping out on the stage."

Dalsey had been an Eagles cheerleader and later the proprietor of an ice cream shop she named for her youngest daughter, Grace.

She had a performer's high-octane personality and an entrepreneur's work ethic. And as a volunteer - which is how I met her - she not only pitched in, but got it done.

"She was the soul behind the school," Gonzalez-Lombardo said.

"She was nice, and pretty, and she used to ask me how I felt, how I was doing," said Eddie Lopez, 9.

The soft-spoken fourth grader was a member of the chorus that sang Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" with special lyrics ("she's our Miss Marcy") at the beginning of the ceremony.

"It's a mixed-emotions day," said Tishara Landi, the school's principal. "I'm happy that her legacy lives on through these kids. But it's a sad day because I don't have Marcy."

"I wish so badly I could see her right now," Grace Dalsey, 24, told the audience in one of the ceremony's many poignant moments.

"To the kids: I always felt I was so blessed, because our mother loved us through and through. And when she started the school, we saw that she loved you the same as she loved us."

Grace Dalsey also recalled her mother's hands-on involvement in the elementary school, which opened in 2012, down to picking the colors of the uniforms. "Now," she said, "her name will be on them."

"Marcy was a very spiritual person," said her partner, Joseph Salema. "Since she passed, I have felt her presence every single day."

The last time I saw Marcy Dalsey was on PATCO, eight or nine months before she died. While we rode from Collingswood to Center City, she talked nonstop about the school, the kids, and Camden, smiling that amazing smile.

The way I will remember her.