MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — A Cummings Elementary School teacher was pronounced dead Nov. 12 after being discovered unresponsive in her off-base home, according to school officials.

Japanese officials reported that Margaret A. Marsett’s death was not the result of criminal activity, according to a Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Pacific news release on Monday.

An Aomori prefectural police spokesman declined to release the cause of death, saying it’s against policy unless foul play is suspected.

Marsett, 63, who taught fourth- and fifth-graders, is the second Pacific DODDS employee to die this month.

Robert J. Joyce, 68, was reported dead Nov. 4 at Ryukyu University Hospital following a battle with cancer, according to a separate news release.

Marsett began working with DODDS in August 2001 as a fifth-grade teacher at Lanham Elementary School at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan, according to the release.

She moved to Misawa in July.

Marsett is survived by her brothers, John and Robin Marsett, and by her niece, Christina Marsett.

Joyce retired from the Air Force in 1992 and worked as a customer service representative with DODDS’s personnel division on Torii Station, Okinawa. He is survived by his wife, Utako “Emi” Joyce.

A memorial service for Joyce will be held at 4 p.m. Friday at Kadena Air Base’s Chapel Two, next to the base library.

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