Gertrude "Trudie" Seybold of Boothbay died peacefully at her home in Boothbay on March 1. Trudie had lived in Boothbay on Back Narrows Road for three years with her daughter Patty Seybold, and before that summered in Boothbay while she lived for 26 years at the Quadrangle retirement community in Haverford, Pennsylvania.

Trudie was married to John Warren Seybold for almost 68 years. He predeceased her in 2004 at the age of 88. Her only brother, Webster Blood, also predeceased her.

Trudie discovered Midcoast Maine as a young woman, when her mother, Mary Edgar Blood, began summering in New Harbor at the Gosnold Arms. (Her husband, Harold Blood would join them on the weekends.) Trudie and John spent their honeymoon in New Harbor, and returned often to the Midcoast region, including the Newagen Inn on the Boothbay peninsula.

Trudie grew up in the Detroit area, and in Worcester, Massachusetts. She attended the Bancroft School, was a graduate of Swarthmore College (class of 1939). After raising her children, she earned a master’s in library science from Drexel University.

As a teen, she would often travel on business with her uncle, Chet Seymour, who would drop her off in the morning in a new city, and pick her up at the end of the day. She loved exploring new places and learned to love libraries and public transportation.

Trudie and John lived in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania for 30 years. She was very active in the Planned Parenthood Association, in Civil Rights activities, and in local community politics.

She and John became Quakers during their college years. The entire family spent 18 months volunteering at the American Friends Service Committee's Quaker Center in Paris in 1960-1961. Trudie loved the time she spent in Paris. She studied French at the Sorbonne, learned the subway and bus systems, and enjoyed getting to know the city and traveling throughout Europe with her family.

After they returned from Paris, John founded Research on Computers for the Printing and Publishing Industries (ROCAPPI) — the world’s first computer typesetting company. Rocappi drew a constant stream of visitors from all over the world to see the pioneering work it was doing.

Trudie and John moved to Cherry Hill, New Jersey in 1968 after ROCAPPI was sold to Lehigh Press. They moved back to Rose Valley, Pennsylvania in 1972, where they ran Seybold Publications (a newsletter publishing and consulting firm) out of their basement and then from a building in Media, Pennsylania. All three kids were involved with the family business. John and Trudie moved to the Quadrangle retirement community in Haverford, Pennsylvania in 1989. Trudie moved to Maine to live with her daughter in 2015.

Trudie is survived by her three children: Jonathan (Santa Fe, New Mexico), Andrew (Phoenix, Arizona), and Patricia Seybold (Boothbay, Maine). She is also survived by four grandchildren, Andrew Seybold Jr. (Kathleen, Georgia), Nancy Seybold (Washington, D.C.), Jesse Breuer (Billerica, Massachusetts), and Karen Sottile (Happy Valley, Oregon); plus three great-grandchildren, Cornelia Seybold, Dorothy Seybold and Everett Breuer. All of them loved her dearly and loved the time they were able to spend with her.

In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory should be made to: Boothbay Region Health Center, 185 Townsend Ave., Suite R, Boothbay Harbor, ME 04538. Trudie was instrumental in getting this new community health center up and running.

Hall’s of Boothbay has care of the arrangements. To extend online condolences please visit www.hallfuneralhomes.com