Eischeid, Mary Elizabeth (Miller)
Mary Elizabeth Eischeid, 84, longtime resident of Lock Haven, passed away on Friday 21, 2011, after valiantly living with Parkinson’s Disease for more than a decade.
Mary was born in Tatamy, PA, on March 10, 1926, the daughter of the late John and Elizabeth Miller. She graduated from Wilson Borough High School in Easton, PA, in 1944; took courses at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah; and graduated from Lock Haven University with a Bachelor of Science in Education, summa cum laude, in 1968. She also earned Master’s Equivalency during her teaching career in which she taught 21 years in the Jersey Shore Area School District, most of those years at the Avis Elementary School. In 1975 Mary also taught in British schools in Lincoln, England for a short time. She retired from teaching in 1989.
Mary was married to the late Howard J. Eischeid, former Dean of Academic Administration at Lock Haven University, who passed away on March 25, 1980 in Waimate, New Zealand. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law Jerry and Nancy Eischeid of South Williamsport, PA; a daughter and son-in-law Dr. Susan Eischeid and Dr. Charles Johnson of Valdosta, GA; and three grandchildren, Stephanie L. Orphal (Shawn) of St. Simon’s Island, GA; Nicholas H. Eischeid, studying at Mansfield University; and LCPL Benjamin H. Eischeid of Camp Lejeune, NC. Mary is additionally survived by honorary family members Sharee and John David Taylor of Lock Haven.
Mary was a very active member of Covenant United Methodist Church since 1965. She taught in the Sunday School for many years, served as President of The United Methodist Women, was a member of The Crusader Class, and served a term as a Lay Leader in the congregation. Mary served on numerous committees and projects at both the congregational and district levels of the church and was an ardent and devout practitioner of her Christian spirituality at home and in all the walks of her life.
Mary was active in Delta Kappa Gamma, an honorary educational society, serving terms as secretary and treasurer. She was also a member of Phi Delta Kappa, serving terms in that organization as corresponding secretary and treasurer.
Mary was an avid, courageous, and fearlessly adventurous world traveler. She served in the American Red Cross during the Korean War and served a tour of duty during that time in Korea and Japan. Mary visited all the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, except Montana and all the countries on the North American continent. She took Pittsburgh University’s “Semester At Sea” during which she took course-work between stops in Spain, Greece, Israel, Taiwan, Japan, India, Thailand, and China. Mary toured Russia when it was still the Soviet Union and traveled with her mother, Gene L. Chievitz, up the northwestern glacial Canadian coast and Alaska. She accompanied her daughter Susan on one of her European academic research trips that included important Holocaust sites and record centers, including Auschwitz, Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor, Warsaw, Majdanek, and “The Wolf’s Lair”. Mary and her husband toured Australia and New Zealand. Additionally, she made countless journeys with family and friends. Throughout the course of her life, Mary held residencies in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Illinois, Texas, Michigan, and Utah.
Mary was a great lover of all kinds of arts and crafts, picking up new, sometimes multiple enthusiasms in each chapter of her life. She did everything from fine-art oil painting to copper enameling and cloisonné work to making silver jewelry, rock tumbling, and traditional folk crafts from a number of cultures including Pennsylvania German to Japanese. In her later years she took up stamping and embossing and created hundreds of unique and artful cards and paper-arts.
Mary loved Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand area of South Carolina and wintered there numerous years. In addition to enjoying time there with her many friends, she loved the beach and “shelling” with a passion. She also used that setting to provide wonderful experiences and memories for her family and her beloved grandchildren.
The greatest love of Mary’s life was people. In all aspects of her life, careers, and avocational interests: compassion and caring for others always came first. She loved to “adopt” people, from the children she taught, to friends, to the elderly when she was younger and the more youthful when she was older. Mary’s life touched more people than we can even begin to comprehend. She consistently taught love, joie d’ vivre, optimism, compassion, and caring by the way she lived life to its fullest with every breath she took. Her passing will be keenly felt and she will be deeply grieved by a great many people for a long time to come.
A Memorial Service will be held in the Chapel of the Susque-View Home, 22 Cree Drive, Lock Haven, on Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 1 p.m. with the Rev. Dennis Callahan, Chaplain officiating.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Mary’s name may be made to a charity of one’s choice.
Search
