Margaret Forker Kotnik (nee Molnar), 92, of Westlake, Ohio, passed away peacefully on September 7, 2019. 

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Marge graduated from high school in 1945 as co-valedictorian of her high school class.   Awarded a full scholarship from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, she attended the Baruch Center of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the Medical College of Virginia, earning a Certificate in Physical Therapy in 1952.   She continued on to Western Reserve University in Cleveland, majoring in biology and graduating magna cum laude with a BS in 1954.  She was inducted into the national science honorary society Nu Sigma Phi.   She furthered her education at the University of Oklahoma, earning a Master of Natural Science (MNS) in biology in 1968.   She was awarded a scholarship from the National Science Foundation to earn the MNS degree.

Marge was a science and health care educator, teaching biology at Laurel School in Shaker Heights and Orange High School in Pepper Pike for over 10 years.  She also taught physical therapist assisting at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) in Cleveland for 18 years, first as an Assistant/Associate Professor, later as the Coordinator of the Physical Therapist Assisting program.  After retiring from Tri-C, Marge continued working as a physical therapist at the Cleveland Veterans Administration (VA) hospital, the Cleveland Clinic Multiple Sclerosis program, and in home health care.

Marge loved the performing arts and ushered for the Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Lyric Opera, and Cleveland Play House.   She served on the Board of Directors at the Cleveland Hungarian Museum and researched the Cleveland Hungarian community she grew up in, giving several presentations about this community, as well as an American Revolutionary War hero born in Karcag, Hungary, both in Cleveland and at the American Hungarian Educators Association conference in Budapest, Hungary.

Marge was predeceased by her parents Paul and Helen (Papp) Molnar; and by her two husbands, James Bently Forker III and Louis John Kotnik.  She is survived by her daughter Laura Forker (Hans), grandson Ben, her sister Elvira Quandt, and numerous nieces and nephews.

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