Maggie Harding Vatter, of Barrington and formerly of Cornwall, N.Y., passed away from a long illness on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017 in Providence.

The daughter of Patrick Joseph Harding and the late Maurie Panzer Harding, Maggie was born at St. John’s Hospital in Yonkers, NY on Oct. 29, 1964. Mag grew up on Jackson Avenue in New Windsor, with her siblings, Mary Harding Kramer, the late Patrick Kevin Harding, the late Timothy Gerard Harding, and the late Kathleen Ann Harding. She attended Cornwall schools where her sparkling personality won her many devoted friends. Mag graduated from Cornwall in 1982. She, like her brothers, was an excellent athlete, playing soccer, volleyball, and softball. She was an outstanding long distance runner and she was enthusiastically learning to play golf. 

Mag graduated from St. Michael’s College in Winooski, Vt. in 1986 with a BA in elementary education. She had been a star player for the Purple Knight soccer and volleyball teams, and, again, a popular, vivacious, funny and feisty friend to many. After college, Maggie made her famous solo trip to Ireland, where she lived in a hostel in Dublin and worked at the Shelburne Hotel for six months. 

Maggie met Rob Vatter at the Cornwall Firemen’s Fair in August of 1981. They fell in love and wed in July of 1992 at a beautiful service at Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz. Rob and Maggie shared many adventures and wonderful trips together, living first in Darien and Norwalk, Conn., Succasunna, NJ, and then Barrington, where they had 19 wonderful years on Adelaide Avenue and at their beautiful neighborhood beach on the Narragansett Bay. They again made many wonderful and lifelong friends and Maggie was an active member of her excellent craft group and the Rhode Island Country Club. Maggie was always surrounded by her crazy dogs, Dakota, Oliver, Cooper, and Riley.

Maggie was the wonderful mother of her five extraordinary children: Emily Madden, Colin Anderson, Drew Patrick, Graham Harding, and Gillian Byrnes. In addition to her father, Patrick, her husband, Robert, and her sister, Mary, Maggie is survived by her sisters-in-law, Denise Coleman Harding and Robin Paley Harding, her brothers-in-law Michael (Roselle) and Doug (Margaret) Vatter, and Sean, Ryan, Keri, Andy, Katie, Thomas,  Amelia, Sophia, Owen, and Keegan.

Visitation was held on Oct. 1 at Quigley Bros. Funeral Home, 337 Hudson St., Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Monday, Oct. 2 at St. Thomas of Canterbury Church, 340 Hudson St., Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY; Fr. Rees Doughty officiated. Interment will follow at St. Thomas Cemetery. 

Memorial Contributions in the name of Maggie Harding Vatter may be made to the Philip Hulitar Inpatient Center/Hope Hospice and Palliative Care at 1085 North Main St., Providence, RI 02904.

Arrangements are entrusted to Quigley Bros. Funeral Home; to send condolences or to get directions, please go to www.Quigleybros.com.