This long-time public servant taught thousands of Sacramentans to read. She was also my mom | Opinion
Mary Nosler Buehler was a tireless crusader for over 30 years in her passionate quest to reach as many people as she could to elevate the lives and livelihoods of our regional population by heading the Sacramento City Unified School District’s co-sponsored adult education program, “The Sacramento Literacy Program,” targeting adult learners who had multiple challenges getting to and attending typical adult school classes.
A longtime Sacramento resident with a master’s degree in education, Mary held six lifetime credentials, one of which was reading specialist. Mary passed away at the age 86 on Thursday, May 18 after a long struggle with debilitating autoimmune illness and advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Her legacy still continues through all the hearts and minds forever enriched by acquiring the profound gift of reading.
Several times a year during her tenure, Mary held a public workshop to recruit and train members of the community to be volunteer one-on-one tutors to serve the most difficult to reach illiterate adults in the area who truly needed their language skills boosted to literally survive. In the decades spent as a public servant, Mary enhanced the reading skills of thousands of people, and trained thousands more to be literary teachers.
Program volunteers were from all genders, generations and ethnicities. The tutors and their students mutually thrived and always shared much more than a weekly reading lesson at one’s kitchen table, faith community, local school or public library. Bridging this gap for the underserved populations in Sacramento was crucial toward the over-arching goals of preparing students to register and attend further classroom-based education, fill out an application for work, apply for a promotion, communicate with their children’s teachers, read to their children and grandchildren or even be able to comprehend the seemingly endless varieties of products on grocery store shelves.
One story Mary recounted often was that of a man who returned home from the grocery store with a bag containing two large, round cans of vegetable shortening, fully intending to have bought fried chicken for his family. What do you suppose was the most prominent picture on the label?
There are countless stories of triumph over the daunting barrier of not being able to read. Mary served as the initial catalyst to inspire individuals to make and continue the monumental effort required to learn to read — a feat which is especially challenging after one has reached adulthood.
Her program’s theme was “Each One, Teach One. . .” though anyone familiar with the phenomenal outcomes of these paired volunteers and adult students in need would probably amend that to “Each One, Reach One . . .,” which she and her excellent literacy volunteers certainly did.
A great debt of gratitude is owed to Mary. The community and the world around her is far better off because she was here. Giving yourself for the betterment of others is an example we all need to remember in these unprecedented, turbulent times, where it often seems that so many people have stopped caring.
Her awards and recognitions were numerous: In her career, Mary’s program was awarded the Most Outstanding Literacy Program in the United States by the National Council of Churches, and the “Year of Literacy” Luminary Award by the Coors Foundation in 1990. The Coors Literacy Luminary award included a $10,000 check, with half of that money designated for the award winner’s personal use. Mary, however, told The Sacramento Bee in 1991 that she planned to donate the entire $10,000 check to her program to help with the purchasing of new books.
In 2008, Mary’s lifetime contributions were recognized by the California State Assembly with a formal resolution.
Mary Nosler Buehler was my mom, she truly cared, and I couldn’t be prouder of what she accomplished in her life. She changed people’s lives forever, and for the better.
