Sarah "Sally" Bond Welch Geary

Sarah (Sally) Bond Welch Geary was born the first of two children in Baltimore, MD on October 6, 1921 and grew up in Annapolis. Her parents, Robert Sellman Gray Welch, MD of Annapolis and Sarah (Sally) Maria Bond Welch of Baltimore and Calvert County, were descended from early Southern Maryland families. In the early 1920’s Sally lived in St. Croix, The U.S. Virgin Islands, where her father was a Navy doctor in charge of the Christiansted Hospital for Lepers. In 1925, Dr. Welch resigned his commission in the U.S. Navy, and he and his family returned to his hometown. There they purchased a home on State Circle, which was in the family until this year, and Dr. Welch opened his office as the first specialist (EENT) in Annapolis. Sally remembered her childhood filled with the love of her devoted mother, father, and brother Bob. She enjoyed carefree summers in Annapolis sailing the Severn River with Navy Junior friends and Midshipmen Hops, where she loved to dance. She graduated from Annapolis High School and Hood College in Frederick, MD, where as senior class president she had the opportunity to choose “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” as the class hymn, which she has chosen again for her memorial service. Upon graduation she spent the summer at the language school at Middlebury College in Vermont, where she studied French and then became a dedicated kindergarten teacher in Annapolis.

Sally married LT John T. Geary from Phoenix, Arizona in 1953, and they spent tours of duty in San Diego and Long Beach, California; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and Norfolk and Alexandria, Virginia. John and Sally moved to Goodwin House in 2011. Sally’s interests included music and patriotic and historic preservation, reflected in volunteer activities as a member of the first Board of Historic Annapolis, Inc., docent at Gunston Hall for the Junior League, and active member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial Dames of America. Her most rewarding activity was participating as a member of the New Life Series, a Bible study conducted by the Rev. Everett L. Fullam in Washington, D.C., and serving as a member of the steering committee. As long as she could remember, Sally tried to live in obedience to the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Luke 6:31

Sally was predeceased by her loving husband, CAPT John Theodore Geary, USN (Ret) and her brother, Robert Bond Welch, MD. She is survived by her son, CAPT John Welch Geary, USN (Ret), USNA Class of 1977, and his wife, Kathleen Baldwin Geary; her grandson, Robert Baldwin Geary; and her granddaughter, Meredith Kathleen Geary Hawley, her husband, Kevin John Hawley, and their daughter, Sally’s great granddaughter, Natalie Alexa Hawley.

A Memorial Service will be held at Goodwin House Alexandria, 4800 Fillmore Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22311 on  Tuesday, August 16, 2022 at 2:30 p.m.

Contributions in Sally's name can be made to the following:

The Trinity School for Ministry

311 Eleventh Street

Ambridge, PA 15003

-or-

The Robert Bond Welch Professorship in Ophthalmology

Johns Hopkins University Office of Development and Alumni Relations

3400 North Charles Street

Baltimore, MD 21208

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