Judith Mabel Hart, 90, a scientist and teacher with an insatiable curiosity

Judith Mabel Hart, 90, a scientist and teacher who was active in local Democratic politics, died Wednesday, April 17, at her son’s home in Bethesda, Md. She had been in declining health after an accident that left her with a broken hip.

Mrs. Hart was a resident of Merion and Wynnewood for more than 60 years.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to Florence Cohen Mabel and Harry Mabel, she graduated from Midwood High School in Brooklyn in 1946. She later attended Goucher College in Baltimore, where she majored in biology and chemistry, and graduated in 1950. She went on to pursue two master’s degrees, one in zoology from Columbia University in 1953 and decades later, in 1981, another in biology from Villanova University.

Mrs. Hart did laboratory research in inveterate zoology and embryology at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and in genetics at Indiana University and the Rockefeller Institute in New York City. She later taught biology, anatomy, and physiology at Harcum College in Bryn Mawr, and served as an editor at Biological Abstracts, a bibliographic references site for life science and biomedical research literature, in Philadelphia.

In 1954, she married Donald Jay Hart, an electrical engineer. The couple raised four children.

Mrs. Hart’s son, David, called his father “my mother’s intellectual partner and the love of her life.”

The couple shared an interest in biology and medicine, and Mrs. Hart was an enthusiastic supporter of her husband’s pioneering work developing technology that would later become the Doppler fetal heart monitor.

Daughter Elizabeth remembered her mother’s intellectual curiosity and love of reading.

“She loved books and conversation," her daughter said. "Her intellectual passion was insatiable and diverse. She read voraciously, particularly enjoying biographies, scientific articles and tomes, doggerel, fiction, and political history.”

Mrs. Hart served as a volunteer and worked in leadership roles at Merion Botanical Park, and supported groups working for peace, civil rights and social justice, her family said.

She was active in Democratic Party politics in Merion, where she served as a committeewoman and as a representative to the Montgomery County Democratic Committee.

In addition to her daughter and son, Mrs. Hart is survived by sons Jon and Link; a sister; three grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

A private service was held on Sunday, April 21.

Memorial donations may be made to Nonviolence International at nonviolenceinternational.net; NPR at npr.org; The Nature Conservancy at support.nature.org; or Androscoggin Home Healthcare and Hospice at androscoggin.org/donate/.