Detroit — Marilyn Fisher Lundy, a member of the well-known Detroit Fisher family and a prominent philanthropist, died June 24 at the age of 89.

Born Marilyn Alice Fisher in Detroit on May 3, 1925, to Edward F. and Adeline Wink Fisher, Lundy graduated summa cum laude from the University of Detroit in May 1946 with a degree in philosophy.

She married C. Bradford Lundy, Jr., on Sept. 14, 1946, and the two raised a family together. They moved their family to Grosse Pointe Shores in 1958 and were active in Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish.

In 1964, Lundy was asked to serve on the board of the League of Catholic Women, a service-oriented nonprofit dedicated supporting families and improving educational opportunities for the less fortunate.

She became its president in 1969. At the time of her election, the League operated three agencies, but by her retirement in 2000, the League, renamed Matrix Human Services, operated nine agencies and had an annual budget of more than $15 million.

Lundy’s community involvement included serving as national president of Citizens for Educational Freedom from 1978-88; being elected to the Michigan State Board of Education in 1988 and serving an eight-year term, also participating in the 2000 voucher referendum Michigan campaign; serving as consultant to the Casa Richard Academy for at-risk youth; and as a board member of the Marilyn F. Lundy Academy, a charter middle and high school.

Lundy also served on the Archdiocese of Detroit’s school board, the boards of University of Detroit, United Way, Our Sunday Visitor, the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights and Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.

Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron told The Detroit News he worked with Lundy on the board of Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the early 1990s.

“I found Mrs. Lundy always thoughtful in her questions, always devoted to serving its goals, and very supportive,” Archbishop Vigneron told The Detroit News.

He also told The News that Lundy’s family had been instrumental with Bishop Michael Gallagher in helping to establish Sacred Heart Seminary after World War I, “and with her serving at the end of the 20th century was a continuation of her family’s legacy.”

Kathleen McCann, a longtime friend and board member of the League of Catholic Women, told The Michigan Catholic that Lundy had a “deep, abiding and confident faith in the Lord that fueled her every thought and action.”

“Marilyn had a simple wood carving on her office wall of the loaves and the fishes,” McCann said. “A daily communicant, she relied on the generosity of God in all things and knew he would always provide… Marilyn, in the truest sense, was a contemplative in action.”

Lundy is survived by her children Marilyn Lundy McCaffrey and Terence B. McCaffrey; C. Bradford Lundy III and Janice Lynne Lundy; Margaret Lundy Agnone and Dr. Eugene J. Agnone; son-in-law Terry P. Murphy and Jill Murphy; Dr. Edward F. Lundy and Eileen Venables Lundy; Kathleen Lundy Springuel and Didier A. Springuel; Lawrence E. Lundy; John D. Lundy and Kim Koester Lundy; 22 grandchildren; and 30 great-grandchildren.

A funeral Mass was celebrated at Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Grosse Pointe Woods on July 7. Interment is at Mount Elliott Cemetery in Detroit. Memorial donations to The Fishermen’s Fund, c/o Sacred Heart Major Seminary, 2701 Chicago Blvd. 48206, www.shms.edu, or Right to Life Michigan, P.O. Box 901, Grand Rapids, MI 49509, www.rtl.org.