Maria Hurston, née Maria Wharton, was the wife of Jasper Hurston. Maria married Jasper in 2799, at the age of 22. Jaspers parents disapproved of his marriage to Maria, an event that would lead to him being disavowed from the Hurston family, and eventually all but forgotten.[1]
While there are no plaques or memorials to her husband, Maria's life is memorialized in the name of the Maria Pure of Heart medical facility.[1]
The cause of the falling out between her husband and his family was due to Maria's heritage. The Wharton family was once a prominent family within the United Empire of Earth, having built the space port in Quinton, and the biodomes over Jata. The Wharton family however would fall out of the public sphere of influence after being blacklisted by the Messer Regime for the heinous act of refusing to build internment centers.[1]
Life and Career
Maria spent much of her childhood impoverished and living in a tenement high-rise in Jata. After having their family legacy destroyed, the Wharton family became staunch anti-Messer activists.[1]
In 2792, at the age of fifteen, Maria was photographed alongside her parents celebrating the overthrow of the Messer regime in the streets of Jata. She would become a Spectrum celebrity overnight.[1]
Maria would go on to utilize this newfound fame to call for a variety of progressive issues and to lift her family out of poverty.[1]
Family and Personal Life
Maria would be introduced to Jasper Hurston through a mutual friend. The two would form the foundation of their relationship bonding over a shared sense of family history and politics that worked against them.[1]
It would be Maria who would convince Jasper to stay at Hurston Dynamics in order to leverage his position to bring about changes for the better. Maria would use Jaspers position within the company to raise her own prominence and fame by hosting charity events.[1]
Whistleblowing
In 2803 Jasper would share an internal report that was debating whether it would be cheaper to comply with a wave of new environmental protections and workers rights laws, or fighting them in court, with Maria. The couple went on to contact a Terra Gazette reporter with the names of employees who had been seriously injured in an explosion at a Hurston weapon manufacturing plant and were subsequently "off-booked" as part of a predatory labor practice that prevented Hurston Dynamics from having to housing and health care to its employees.[1]
After the Terra Gazette broke the story supplied to them by Maria, she would go on to start a fundraising campaign to pay for the healthcare of any workers that had been "off-booked" by Hurstan Dynamics. This highly public admonishment of the company would result in Jasper and Maria being summoned to the companies headquarters by Alton Hurston, Jaspers father and the CEO of Hurston Dynamics at the time.[1]
Subsequent negotiations with Alton would result in Maria stopping her public criticism of the company in exchange for the company hiring her to address the issue, and Jaspers transfer back to the Headquarters.[1]
Later Life and Career
in 2804 Maria headed the largest expansion of Hurston's healthcare program to date. However, Maria and Jaspers life after moving to Earth was made difficult by a faction within the Hurston family who resented the couples rise to power. The faction would dedicate themselves to opposing initiatives led by both Jasper and Maria, such as Maria's continued attempts to expand the company's healthcare policies.[1]
Corporate Takeover
By 2811 Maria and Jasper realized that they were being stonewalled at every turn in their attempts at modernizing Hurston Dynamics. The couple reasoned that the only way to effect any real change would be with Jasper being named CEO, and that the only way they would obtain that goal was with a complete corporate takeover.[1]
After secret meetings with various family members ranging in levels of support, in an attempt to secure support for their takeover, Jasper would be summoned to Alton's office and ultimately fired for plotting a coup. Maria would attempt to get Jasper his job back by threatening to expose the company's illegal dumping of toxic cehmicals into a lake on Asura, however, in the end her attempts would fail and Jasper would never work for the company again.[1]
Hurtson Health Foundation
In 2812 Maria would launch the Hurston Health Foundation, a charity whose focus was on providing medical care to every former employee of Hurston Dynamics that had been "off-booked."[1]
Legacy
Following her death in 2880, Jasper and Maria's son, Chesterfield Hurston, would dedicate the brand new and state-of-the-art medical facility in Lorville to her.[1]
