Mary Louise Skelton

1926-1995

" They are not dead who live in lives they leave behind--

in those whom they have blessed, they live again."

H. R. Orr

Mary Louise Skelton was first exposed to yoga in 1969 after her husband, Colgate University professor William Skelton, received a grant from the American Institute of Indian Studies. When the family went to Madras, India, Mary Louise started on the path of yoga with her first teacher, Sri T. Krishnamacharya .

Professor Krishnamacharya (1888-1989) was a master not only of yoga but also the other main schools of Indian philosophy, Ayurveda, Indian astrology, and music. He was a visionary who developed different forms of yoga and allowed women to have access to practices that had traditionally been reserved for men. Professor Krishnamacharya helped bring yoga’s remarkable healing potential into the 20th century.

In 1974, Mary Louise became a student of Krishnamacharya’s son, T.K.V. Desikachar, founder of the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram ( http://www.kym.org/ourfounder.html). The strong and productive relationship that developed between Mary Louise and Desikachar lasted for over 20 years and led, among other things, to the publication of Desikachar’s first book, Religiousness in Yoga.

Urged to transmit the knowledge and methodology of her teachers, Mary Louise founded Upstate Yoga Institute in 1983. She taught in Syracuse and Hamilton and organized many seminars with Desikachar at Colgate University. In 1992, she and her husband accompanied Desikachar on his pilgrimage to Lake Manasarovar in the Himalayas, the area where Krishnamacharya spent seven years studying yoga with his own teacher, Sri Ramamohan Brahmachari.

Mary Louise Skelton died in 1995 after a long and brave battle with cancer. She has left behind a following of dedicated students and teachers who continue her work.