Margot Aronson: A Remembrance

February, 2023

Laura Groshong, LICSW

CSWA Director, Policy and Practice

I first met Margot at the Clinical Social Work Federation meetings in 2004. She was President of the Greater Washington Society for Clinical Social Work and I was working on the CSWF Government Relations Committee. We were just getting to know each other when CSWF morphed into the Clinical Social Work Association in 2006; I was asked to lead the CSWA Government Relations Committee. Living in the “other” Washington, I quickly realized I would need someone in Washington DC to attend MHLG meetings, briefings, and other DC based events. Knowing that Margot had spent about 5 years doing advocacy for GWSCSW, I asked her if she would like to serve as my Deputy in DC. She quickly agreed and our partnership blossomed. We wrote papers together (she was a master editor), developed policy positions, lobbied together during my quarterly trips to DC, and often talked daily about the many issues we covered. We worked with about eight CSWA Presidents and created the Policy and Practice Committee where she also served as my Deputy.

I loved Margot for many reasons, including the times my husband and I spent with her and her late beloved husband, Ed Levin. Losing Ed five years ago left a hole in Margot’s life that led to a deepening of our personal relationship. I encouraged her to get involved with PsiAN, a new organization in Chicago, where she joined the Board and became as indispensable to them as she was to me.

I never gave up hope that Margot would recover when she started having health problems a year ago, but it was not to be. Her daughter Stephanie (a social worker) did a wonderful job taking care of her for the past year. Her son, Jeff, and other daughter, Ali, were also devoted to her.

A light has gone out in the world, but I hope we all can recognize the incredible gifts that Margot brought to our field and the ways she made clinical social work stronger. I will miss her more than I can say.

Growing Up Wright

IN MEMORIAM – Margot Richardson Aronson -
By Edith Payne, former Richardson house owner

Margot Aronson, a longtime Conservancy member and daughter of Elisabeth (Betty) and Stuart Richardson, the original owners of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Richardson house in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, died on January 30, 2023 at the age of 80. 

The Stuart Richardson house, an hexagonal module Usonian, was designed by Wright in 1941, but because of World War II, was not completed until 1951. The Richardsons, with their two daughters Margot and her sister, moved in on October 23, 1951. At the time, the house, which was comprised of a single story on a slab foundation, was regarded by the townspeople as bizarre. Even forty years later, Stuart was still described by fellow workers at his employer, Prudential, as the very tall man with a pipe and a weird house.  However, the Richardsons, including Margot, did not regard it as such, quickly adapting to the commands of Wright’s design and finding comfort and stimulation in the building’s materials, details of construction and accommodating layout. 

Margot lived in the house until departing for college, where she earned a B.A. in English literature from Barnard in 1964 and a M.A. in eighteenth century English literature from Columbia University three years later. She then joined the Peace Corps, married, had three children with her husband Joel Aronson and later divorced.  

Margot’s parents sold the Richardson house in 1972 and retired to Florida.  Margot continued her education, obtaining a MSW  at the University of Maryland School of Social Work in 1985, graduating with honors. Thereafter, she practiced as a clinical social worker in the Washington D.C. area and was active in advocacy and legislative affairs on behalf of professional organizations in her field. 

In the 1990s, Margot married  Edward M. Levin, a Harvard trained lawyer with, among other things, deep knowledge of Chicago’s progressive movement, a Midwesterner’s appreciation for Wright, an abiding interest in the social concerns of his law school classmate, Ralph Nader, and an unexplained affinity for all things related to Minnie Mouse. Following a distinguished career in government, in 2001 he retired, thereafter teaching courses in grants law and ethics. Ed died in 2015 after 23 years of marriage to Margot. 

In 1996, the Conservancy honored original Wright clients at its annual conference, held in Seattle. Margot came as her family representative for the Richardson House. While there, she met my husband John Payne who, with me, had purchased her family home a few months earlier. A strong friendship developed, and thereafter she and her husband Ed kept a close and benevolent eye on our efforts to restore the house to the state that Margot remembered so fondly. At one point, she even held a reunion at the house for her high school classmates. Throughout this period Margot kept her mother informed of our progress, and Betty’s letters commenting on our work became family treasures.  On one eventful occasion, Margot and Ed brought Betty to see the house, where she appeared with a cape and walking stick that would have made Wright proud.  Fortunately, she approved of what we had done. 

Until shortly before her death, Margot remained active in Conservancy matters, serving on its publications and, most notably, homeowners committees and financially contributing generously to the Conservancy’s endeavors.  Most recently she brought the concept of the quarterly “Drop-in” to the homeowners committee, one of the most successful launches of a program in the history of the committee.  Throughout her time as a Conservancy member, she added to our understanding of Wright’s work by bringing together for conversation Wright homeowners and aficionados and by articulating from a personal perspective, as only an English major could, the magic of Wright’s built work.

A Tribute to Margot Aronson

February, 2023

by Judy Gallant, LCSW-C 

GWSCSW Director of Legislation and Advocacy

There are many people our Society is indebted to for our success in achieving legislative goals, but, sadly, we have lost one of our most committed, beloved and active members, Margot Aronson, who passed away on January 30, 2023, at the age of 80, after a year of coping with various illnesses.

As several of our members have commented, she was “a force to be reckoned with.” From her ability to encourage, cajole and support members to become more active in the Society’s work, to her enthusiasm for progressive and social justice causes, and to the detailed work she would do to make sure Clinical Social Workers were included in Federal legislation, she was always able to move things along in the right direction.

Margot’s experience growing up in New Jersey was the basis of her lifelong interest in and support of a group dedicated to Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture. Her parents were teachers whose goal for their family was to live in a house built by Wright. Now called “The Richardson House,” it is a “Usonian” house. These homes were built for the working class, with the goal of building affordable, functional homes for those with more limited budgets. Margot’s mother and father wrote to Frank Lloyd Wright with their wishes, and they collaborated with him to get the home built.

After attending college in NY, Margot worked for a number of years with the Peace Corps and treasured those experiences, including editing their magazine at the time. This helped her feel comfortable with taking on her first major role in our Society, editor of our newsletter.

After marrying and starting a family, she eventually found her way to Social Work, graduating with a Master’s degree from the University of Maryland’s School of Social Work. She worked for many years with children, adolescents and their families at the Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents (RICA) in Montgomery County, MD. She also joined GWSCSW, where in addition to being our newsletter editor, she became President (2002-2005), and Vice President for Legislation and Advocacy (currently named Director of L&A).

It was in this last role that Margot tapped on my shoulder and drew me in to working on our MD Legislation and Advocacy Committee. We drove to Annapolis together countless times, thought through strategies to accomplish our goals, and discussed how best to write testimony together with our lobbyist at the time, Alice Neily Mutch. I learned that I could actually talk to legislators (they are people!), as well as provide testimony in committee hearings. I was nervous, but Margot was a calming, informative, and for me, a necessary presence.

When Margot became more involved with CSWA, becoming the Deputy Director for Policy and Practice, she and then-President Nancy Harrington asked that I step into the role of Director of L&A. I did so and continued to consult with Margot for her sage advice and experience, which was vast.