Helen Hoopes Peitz, Longtime Haddonfield Resident, Dies at 85

Helen Hoopes Peitz(nee Polk), 85, died this week at her home in Haddonfield.

She had lived in Haddonfield since 1954.

While raising five children, Helen devoted herself to causes that included the Visiting Nurse, the Girl Scouts and the local Republican party. Into her late 70s, when she became sick, she volunteered unfailingly with an Alzheimer’s group, sitting with patients so their families could catch a break. She volunteered to help run a Girl Scout troop in her 60s because she thought it important that girls learn the independence that Scouting could give. 

In her later years, Helen found joy in her grandchildren, in her fellow daily communicants at Christ the King Church, and in the other plot holders at Haddonfield’s Crows Woods community gardens. A typical day began with Mass with friends, shifted to care of her grandchildren, and ended with an hour or two of quiet, tending her vegetables at Crows Woods. On one of her last visits to Crows Woods, in a wheelchair as she surveyed the gardens while children played soccer nearby, she said, "This is living."

She is survived by her children Clara Notredame, Charles, Anne (Nelson) Remetz, Mary (Kevin) Kelly and H. Judith (Sukumar) Patel. She is also survived by her sister Elizabeth (E. Vernon) Soderland; by her grandchildren Julia and Stephen Kelly, Elizabeth and Meera Patel, and Madeline and Nelson Remetz; and by numerous nieces and nephews, whose varied callings always delighted her. She is also survived by five of six friends whom she met in kindergarten.

The family will receive visitors on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Hinski-Tomlinson Funeral Home, 81 Haddon Ave., Haddonfield. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Saturday at 10 a.m. at Christ the King Church, Windsor Avenue and Wood Lane, Haddonfield. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Christ the King Church.