After sadly hearing that Mary A. Maloney-Wilson, 96, passed away on Dec. 16, 2020, we recalled some of the popular Cecil County leader’s accomplishments. As a business leader, elected official, and trailblazer, there were several firsts.
The times were changing here as the 1960s slowly gave way to the 1970s. Although a Board of Commissioners had governed the county for almost three hundred years, the elected leaders had always been men. However, that changed in 1970 when voters elected Mary to the Board. With experience in the business world, the owner of B. B. Martin Outdoor Advertising & Four Corners Tavern became a modernizing force in local government, providing leadership that helped guide the county through a period of rapid change and significant growth.
Bringing local government into a new era, Mary Maloney and the two other board members, Joseph Biggs & Walt Mason, established the Department of Public Works and implemented a modern planning department to deal with the growth that was spilling into this corner of Maryland.
According to Cecil College, when she took office in 1970 for her first term, she became the first woman to serve as a county commissioner in Maryland. When the voters returned the well-liked official for a second term, she was elected president of the three-member commission that headed local government.
In 1980, Governor Harry A. Hughes appointed her to the Cecil Community College Board of Trustees, as it was known then. She served there for twenty-four years.
Mary, a thorough, caring leader, was deeply engaged in the community. She could put anyone at ease as they attended board meetings or discussed business of importance to them.
Mary Maloney was a Cecil County trailblazer. Fifty years after women first voted in Cecil County she had been elected to its top leadership position.
