Virginia Dietrich

DIETRICH
Virginia May (Chapman), age 89, of Ridgefield, NJ, died Sunday, April 28, 2013, in Teaneck. Born July 16, 1923, in Newport, RI, she was the daughter of Edwin E. and Annie L. (Jackson) Chapman. She grew up in Cos Cob (Greenwich), CT, and was a 1945 graduate of Rhode Island State College (now URI).
She met her husband, George T. Dietrich, a WWII veteran, while working at New York University. They married in Cos Cob in 1949 and settled in George's hometown of Ridgefield. After many years raising her sons she began her second career, first at the Bergen News, and later as a technician in Product Development for Lever Brothers (now Unilever) in Edgewater. She was a Mayflower descendent and her ties to Rhode Island were deep. She returned yearly to visit her beloved Aunt Corrine, Uncle Louis, and cousins, with whom she kept in touch over many decades.
She was a longtime member of the Morsemere Community Church, in Ridgefield, serving on the Altar Guild, and for many years as the recording secretary for the Parent Teacher Guild. She was a member of the Ridgefield Senior Citizens, and volunteered with the Friends of the Library.
Virginia was predeceased by her husband (1997); both parents; her brother Jackson Chapman, and his wife Mary Alice; brother-in-law Vincent Dietrich, and his wife Doris.
She will be greatly missed by her sons Thomas Chapman Dietrich, and his wife Lauren Maehrlein, and Clifford Bryan Dietrich, by her much loved grandchildren: Amy Dietrich Hernandez (Danny); Emily Totaro (Keith); and Jackson Dietrich. She adored her great-grandchildren: Brett, Charles, and Evan Hernandez, and Sutter, Cole, and Quinn Totaro. She will be missed by sister-in-law Eleanor Sammartino, and many nieces and nephews. Special thanks to her many friends, especially Maude Oswald and Helen Athanas, for their unselfish acts of kindness over the years, and to the Ridgefield Police Dept and Ambulance Corps.
Viewing will be Wednesday, May 1, from 4-8 PM at Blackley Funeral Home, Ridgefield. Funeral service Thursday, May 2, at 1 PM, at Morsemere Community Church, Linden and Prospect Aves, Ridgefield, with burial beside her husband at English Neighborhood Reformed Cemetery, Ridgefield.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Morsemere Community Church; Ridgefield Friends of the Library; or Meals on Wheels of Hackensack, in her memory.
For directions or to send condolences, go to
www.blackleyfuneral.com.