Mary Margaret Beck Moser (October 12, 1924 – January 12, 2013) was an American field linguist and Bible translator who worked on behalf of the Seri people of Mexico for more than fifty years.
Daughter of Robert and Vila Mae Beck, Mary Margaret was born on October 12, 1924, in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania.
She graduated from high school in Williamsport, Pennsylvania and attended Wheaton College (Illinois) for two years and then taught first grade on a War Emergency Certificate.
A major effort in the early years was to learn the Seri language well and understand the culture, but the Mosers also helped in various ways to deal with a measles epidemic and other medical and physical needs.
But the house was a mecca for visitors to the area since scientists, government personnel, artists, and tourists alike always found a welcome there, especially to have a good meal and to use the bucket-shower in the corner of the kitchen and the adobe outhouse furnished with reading material and art exhibit.
Working in close collaboration with community members and under the guidelines of the Secretaría de Educación Pública (Mexico's department of education), they prepared the first materials to be used to teach Seri children and adults how to read and write their language.
She and Richard S. Felger, a botanist from Arizona, collaborated for more than twenty years to produce the Seri ethnobotany, People of the Desert and Sea, considered a classic today for the depth and breadth of its investigation into the use of plants by a single ethnic group.