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Memorial for Helen Vassau Fitzhugh
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Born in Willow City, North Dakota on Dec. 20, 1910
Departed on Sep. 20, 2009 and resided in Oberlin, OH.
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Monday, Oct. 5, 2009
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Please click on the links above for locations, times, maps, and directions.
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Helen Fitzhugh, age 98, died peacefully after a brief illness at Kendal of Oberlin, where she had lived since 2000.
The fifth child and only daughter of Joseph Vassau and Teresa Hirsch, Helen was born in Willow City, North Dakota, near the Canadian border on a farm homesteaded by her parents. She attended school in Montana and Minnesota, excelling in science and mathematics at a time when girls were discouraged from pursuing sciences. After attending the University of Minnesota and graduating from the University of Colorado in Boulder during the early years of the great depression, Helen began a teaching career in a one room schoolhouse in Joes, Colorado. She later moved to teach science in Green River, Wyoming, where she met her husband, Edward Fitzhugh, Jr. and married in 1942.
During WWII, the couple moved to Washington DC, and then to Upstate New York before settling in Cleveland Hts in 1952.
Helen became the first lower school science teacher at Laurel School, pushing her lab equipment from room to room on a small cart: a tiny, determined figure known to many as 'the little general."
She was an active volunteer for many years with Planned Parenthood, the Council on World Affairs, and at St. Paul's Church in Cleveland Heights. She and her husband delighted in hosting foreign families moving to this community, and she continued to be a 'surrogate mother' for foreign music school students at the Oberlin Conservatory after moving to Kendal at age 89.
She volunteered at the Kendal RAF resale shop will into her 90s and up until a week before her death could be seen knitting multicolored children's hats for local and international charities.
She and her husband delighted in extensive world travels, and she continued to explore new destinations well into her 90s.
Helen is survived by her children, Anne F. Coughlin of Beulah, Colorado, Ned (William E.) Fitzhugh of Rocky River, OH, two grandchildren and five great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Edward, and her four older brothers.
Funeral Services will be held Monday, October 5th at 4 PM in St. Martin's Chapel of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 2747 Fairmount Blvd., Cleveland Hts., OH.
BROWN-FORWARD SERVICE 216 752-1200
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