Margaret Lea Sheeran

Margaret Lea Sheeran, a high-spirited and gifted woman who met the challenges of a debilitating disease with undaunted courage, passed away peacefully at her home on September 13, with her husband and sister present.

She was born March 3, 1950, the daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Sheeran, an immigration officer and operating room nurse respectively in Coral Gables, Florida, who raised her along with her three sisters in a devoutly Catholic home. By the time she was ready for college, she had achieved multiple awards, including a National Merit Scholarship, and initially intended to be an engineer, but she was becoming independent and chose to try something new by selecting a small liberal arts college in Sarasota, Florida, which was then only three years old. That was New College. The school emphasized independent self-directed study with the close cooperation of teachers, and she thrived there, completing a degree in Comparative Literature in three years.

She then went on to the University of Chicago, where she earned a Masters in Library Science. She decided to take her library degree to a small town in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, and become the first professional librarian at the Jackson County Public Library in the town of Sylva. She served there two years before deciding to go back to graduate school to earn an MBA, intending to become a better librarian. But in those two years in Sylva she had become so fondly remembered by the people of the town that when they built a new library twelve years later, they dedicated a room in Margaret’s memory and invited her as an honored guest to the new library’s dedication.

It was in Sylva that she married her husband of 52 years, Tom Manteuffel, in 1974. Although both were New College graduates, they really got together only as fellow students at the University of Chicago, where Tom was studying Philosophy. They moved together to Sylva, where they lived in an idyllic home among the scenic mountains. Margaret took up weaving and natural dyeing, and became a Julia Child-inspired gourmet cook. When Tom decided to go to graduate school in Chapel Hill in Computer Science, then a brand new discipline, Margaret immediately decided to apply to business school there as well.

At the University of North Carolina Kenan School of Business in Chapel Hill, Margaret was initially known as ‘the librarian,’ but she found the intensely competitive environment thrilling, developing a new interest in accounting and finance. She was soon beginning to challenge for top awards, and by the time she had earned her MBA, she was academically at the top of her class. She graduated with a CPA as well.

She initially took a position with Price Waterhouse in 1978, at a time when there were almost no female partners in any of the top five accounting firms. It took only a few years to learn that rather than to break that cycle she would be happier with a smaller accounting firm, so she went to work for Carolina Power and Light in Raleigh.

In 1982 she became a mother, with the birth of her son Christopher Daniel Manteuffel. Two years later came a daughter, Rachel Alexandra Manteuffel. Along with Tom, they were the light and center of her life from then on. The family moved to Clearwater, Florida in 1985, and to Vienna, Virginia in 1988, where they have lived ever since in a home just off Wolf Trap Park.

By 1992 she was beginning to develop symptoms of reduced balance and increasing fatigue which were diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. Life became a challenge, but she never lost her sense of humor through it all. Fortunately the progression in her case was relatively slow, and while she gave up her accounting career in order to devote her energies to her family, she continued being a strong and remarkable presence in her family’s life.

When her daughter was at William and Mary, Rachel’s school chums were so beguiled by Rachel’s stories of Margaret’s spunkiness that they set up a Facebook page devoted to her.

The family has enjoyed several European travel ventures together, with memorable trips including London and Paris in 1998, Rome, Venice and Florence for several weeks in 2004, and a treasured tour of Vienna (the other one) and Berlin in 2004. Tom and the children retain fond memories of carrying Margaret in a wheelchair up the steps to the Parthenon at the then-inaccessible Acropolis, or up the narrow stairs of Ste Chapelle in Paris. It was all made better that she was there.

In recent years she was blessed to join a FaceTime call every night as Chris called in from Phoenix to have Tom read Philip a story. Storytelling to children was always her favorite part of being a librarian. Rachel also was always near and visited often, and was ever one of Peg’s biggest fans.

She leaves a large family, including two sisters, Kathleen Sheeran of Vienna, VA and Marita Sheeran of Seattle, WA. Her sister Julia Morris predeceased her in 1995. She is also survived by her husband Tom Manteuffel of Vienna, two children, Rachel Manteuffel of Washington, DC and Christopher and his wife Andrea Manteuffel, and their son Philip, all of Phoenix, AZ. In addition she leaves six nieces and nephews and eight great-nieces and -nephews.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.