HILDA R. BIJUR

BIJUR--Hilda Reis. Hilda Reis Bijur died peacefully December 26, surrounded by adoring family. She was born in Greenwich, CT, in 1918 and grew up in New York City, where she was valedictorian of her class at the Lincoln School. Hilda graduated from Vassar College in 1940. After working for Theatre Arts Magazine she went to Washington, D.C., to work at the Red Cross during WWII, writing for its publication. She came back to New York after the war and studied photography with Josef Breitenbach. In 1952 she married the love of her life, Bill Bijur, and within two years they were the doting parents of Arthur and Victoria. Bill's life was cut devastatingly short in 1960 after a long illness, and Hilda carried on with the utmost grace, strength, dignity, and quiet joy. Within a week of Bill's death, she was photographing at Union Theological Seminary. In 1965 she started photographing for the World Bank. Over the next ten years she was sent to the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Malta, Jamaica, Mexico, Trinidad, Morocco, and Israel to photograph World Bank projects. She also served proudly as president of the Cosmopolitan Club. She was the most devoted, supportive, and loving mother, a rock of Gibralter not just to her children but also to her extended family and her friends. Since 1973 she had spent summers at a beloved house on Martha's Vineyard, where she celebrated her 95th birthday in August. She is survived by her children, Arthur and Victoria, her son-in-law, Ed Levine, and two magnificent grandsons, William Levine and Benjamin Bijur.