Find A Grave Memorial# 44721274
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Obituary:
Brunswick, ME – Helen Mae Reiter CHATFIELD, 86, died April 1, 2007 at Mere Point Nursing Home after a long and debilitating illness.
Helen was born, June 21, 1920, in Philadelphia, PA, oldest daughter of Margaret Walls Reiter and Harold Reiter, and older sister to the late Jeanne Elizabeth Reiter Bauerle. She grew up in East Lansdowne, PA, graduating from Lansdowne High School. She completed executive secretarial training in Philadelphia. In 1942,
Helen married Alexander S. CHATFIELD, also of East Lansdowne, formerly of Detroit, Michigan. After his return from active duty with the Army Air Corps during World War II, they moved many times to accommodate his career in engineering in the petroleum, nuclear power, and chemical industries; including the greater Philadelphia area, on Long Island, NY, in Tarrytown, NY and outside of Wilmington, DE in Hockessin.
After their son, First Lieutenant Richard Allen CHATFIELD, a graduate of the class of 1966, United States Military Academy at West Point, NY, died tragically as a result of a military accident in Germany, they finally settled on the south Jersey shore in 1968.
Following her husband's death in 1983, Helen remained on the Jersey Shore until 2002 when she moved to Thornton Oaks Retirement Community in Brunswick, ME to be closer to her daughter's family.
Among many achievements, Helen was selected to represent the United States as a gymnast on flying rings and parallel bars in the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany. In the 1960's, she served as executive secretary at the Greenrock Corporation in Pocantico Hills, NY for the Nelson Rockefeller family. In 1984, Helen retired as the secretary to the Director of Nursing at Shore Memorial Hospital in Somers Point, NJ after a decade and a half of dedicated service. In spite of severe visual impairment, Helen continued her lifelong love of reading with books on tape; she gardened, baked and managed her own finances. She traveled extensively over the globe, across all the continents --and many of the world's islands-- with the exception of South America. Helen had a lifelong appreciation of opera, classical music, and theatre. She supported the symphony and the arts in general. The beach at "the shore" (South Jersey) was a constant destination throughout Helen's entire life.
Helen was devoted to her two children, the late Richard Allen CHATFIELD, and Leslie Anne CHATFIELD, formerly Karg, of the greater Brunswick area, and to her two granddaughters, Elizabeth Alicia McCabe of Falmouth, ME and Hillary Susannah McCabe of Boston, MA. She was particularly proud of their academic, professional, and personal accomplishments. Helen faced repeated losses and tragedies with courage and stamina over the course of her lifetime, and her final illness left her struggling for well over a decade to show devotion to the family whom she dearly loved. Along with her daughter and granddaughters, Helen is survived by two nieces Helen Noel Bauerle Hudson of Mays Landing, NJ, Jeanne Margaret Bauerle Ferrante of Atlantic City, NJ; three great-nephews Erik Hudson of Atlantic City, NJ, Dave Ferrante of Mays Landing, NJ, Ed Ferrante of Dorothy, NJ.; six cousins, Robert Stewart of Wilmington, NC, Jane Stewart Moore of Woodstown, NJ, Samuel "Bud" Stewart, Jr. of Pitman, NJ, Theodore "Ted" Gallus of Sewell, NJ, Tom Walls of Wenonah, NJ, Dennis Walls of Woodbury, NJ.
A memorial service will be held at 9 am, April 12, 2007 in the Community Room at Midcoast Geriatric Services, 58 Baribeau Drive, Brunswick, ME. A brief reception will follow. A memorial mass for Mrs. Helen Chatfield will be held at Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Shore Road, Somers Point, NJ 9:30 AM Saturday, April 14, 2007. A memorial service will follow 3 PM at Saint John's The Evangelist Episcopal Church, Lansdowne, PA for Mr. Alexander Chatfield. Interment of Mr. and Mrs. Chatfield will be in Arlington Family Cemetery, Drexel Hill, PA.