By the family

April 9, 2026: Paula Louise Newell, nee Corning, passed away on February 23^rd at age 84.  She succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease at a memory care facility near her home in Centreville, MD.

Mom grew up in Beverly, MA, graduated from Wheelock College, settled in Manhattan where she married her husband, Bill, and began a career teaching at Bronxville School that would touch five decades.  Eventually, she, Bill and her two young sons William and Andrew, moved to a home just steps from her workplace in 1979.  In 1980 she welcomed a third child, daughter Rebecca.

Perhaps following an example set by her father, Reid, who was president of a local bank in Beverly, Mom devoted her life to serving her community.  She was energetic, opinionated and confident, at times even brash.  As a result, she touched the lives of countless Bronxville families with outsized impact over many years.  She even had the pleasure of teaching a second generation of some Bronxville families.  Somewhere along the way she completed a PhD at Columbia University Teachers College while still teaching full-time.

In the mid-90s, Mom took leave from teaching to undertake an ambitious revamp of the Reformed Church Nursery School, just across the street.   RCNS proved to be an ideal target for her energy, optimism, and innate entrepreneurialism.  The benefits of her work there continue to be in evidence. 

Mom also served a term as president of the Bronxville Library board, as if the intersection of Pondfield Road and Midland Avenue were the center of her universe.

After retiring with Bill to a small farm in Maryland, Mom continued to put her skills to work on various boards of charitable organizations, until the effects of early onset Alzheimer’s disease took those formidable faculties from her.

Mom is survived by her three children, and 8 grandchildren, who all miss her terribly.  She was predeceased by Bill last May.

There was no service, in accordance with her wishes.