Helen Louise Gluys Hawk passed away on May 26, 2006 after a brief illness at the age of 88. She was born on March 29, 1918 in Richmond, Indiana, daughter of the late James Howard and Reba Anna Macy Gluys. She married David Carlton Hawk in 1941. After having their three sons, they left Richmond in the early 1950's and lived in Ohio, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Maryland before retiring to Foxdale Village in State College, PA in 1989.
Helen received her bachelors degree from Earlham College in 1939 and a Masters Degree in Social Work from Rutgers University in 1968. A lifelong member of the Religious Society of Friends, she was actively engaged in a number of social justice and political concerns. She applied her open and engaging personality to prisoner counseling, providing classroom support in State College elementary schools, and in the League of Women Voters.
Her concerns for social justice and equity were instilled in her children along with her desire that they be self reliant and able to manage daily housekeeping skills - the latter being only partially realized. Prior to their move to Foxdale and a hasty retreat from daily kitchen duty, she had a reputation for producing very thick cake frostings and fudge.
Her spunky and optimistic outlook on life and people will be missed by her surviving brother Charles Byron Gluys of Greenfield,IN; three sons, Stephen Allen and wife Inez of Baltimore, MD, Arnold Bruce and wife Susan of East Thetford, VT, Roger Carlton and wife Elizabeth Corell of Concord, NH; and three grandsons, Andrew, Edward, and David. In addition to her parents she was preceded in death by her husband David in 2003, her sister Mildred Jane Gluys Bingham in 1995, and by her brother Howard Macy Gluys in 1971.
A memorial service will be held at Foxdale Village at a later date. Arrangements are under the direction of the Mark D. Heintzelman Funeral Services, 1034 Benner Pike, State College, PA.