Deborah ("Debby") Wood Appleyard died on August 31, 2024 in Acton, ME after being diagnosed with bile duct cancer earlier this year. She and her husband Robert ("Bob") retired to Acton in 2007.
Debby was born in Cheverly, MD on August 3, 1948, the daughter of Edgar Scott Wood and Marjorie Wible Wood. She graduated from Severna Park High School in Maryland in 1966 and then attended Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. She graduated Allegheny with an art degree in 1970.
She met Bob on her first day at Allegheny when he helped move her bags into her dormitory. That small moment would ultimately lead to a nearly 52-year marriage.
After graduating Allegheny, Debby supported Bob as he attended the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA and began his career as an Episcopal minister at Fox Chapel Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania.
In a college autobiography, Debby once wrote that when she fell in love with Bob she questioned if she could fit into the role of a minster's wife, which "to me seems a little out of character and will be hard to fill." In the years that followed, she would go on to define that role on her own terms, serving as a source of strength that was integral to Bob's ministry as they moved from St. Michael's Church in Milton, MA to St. Barnabas Church in Falmouth, MA.
Debby was also a loving mother to her son Benjamin ("Ben"), a caring sister to her siblings Pamela Ernst, Jeffrey Wood, Wendell Jones and Suzi Snyder, and a dear friend to many in the many communities she was a part of throughout her life. This includes a group of college friends, whose story was shared in a Wall Street Journal article in 2022 highlighting the strength these friends continued to provide decades after graduating from Allegheny.
In addition to her son and siblings, Debby is survived by her four grandchildren – Abigail, Colin, Caleb and Caroline – Ben's wife Alexandra Pastor Appleyard, and her daughter-in-law Deborah Van Allen Appleyard.
At the close of her college autobiography, Debby shared that "Although I am not afraid of dying, I can only hope that I will be around long enough to see my children grow up, and to be there to help them when they need me." She achieved that and so much more during her life, and in her final days she was surrounded by friends and family who were there to care for her, just as she had helped them.
A service will be held at St. Barnabas Church on Main Street in Falmouth, MA on Tuesday, October 29, 2:30 P.M.
At the end of their of lives, both Debby and Bob received care from Hospice of Southern Maine. The family welcomes donations [hospicesouthernmaine.org] as an expression of sympathy to help provide support for others in their own times of need.

Cremation care by Peaslee Funeral Home. To express condolences, please visit: www.peasleefuneralhome.com