Harriet Bernd Heilman Stapleton

Harriet Bernd Heilman Stapleton, 91, died on Janu-ary 26, 2009 in Westminster Towers, Bradenton, Florida where she was a resident for five years. She was born on August 8, 1917 in the village of Egypt, Pennsylvania to William J. Heilman and Mary E. Bernd Heilman. She at-tended Ritter high school in Allentown. Her paternal grandfather, Rev. Uriah P. Heilman, founded the Lutheran Home at Topton, Pennsylvania. Her maternal grandfather, Rev. Franklin K. Bernd, was a professor at what is now Kutztown (PA) University. In 1939 she married Martin Luther Stapleton of Reading, Pennsylvania, who retired from Indiana Uni-versity of Pennsylvania in 1979. He died in 1993. Harriet graduated from Kutztown in 1939 with a degree in education and library science, and for the next forty years was a teacher or librarian at public schools in Armstrong, Berks, Indiana, and Lancaster counties in Pennsylvania. By the 1960s she had developed a concept of the library as a multimedia center that was in advance of her profession. She had a love of watch-ing baseball, playing bridge, swimming, and travel. She was active in Business and Professional Women and the Audubon Society. She was the first librarian of the Kutztown Public Library, and volunteered at the Lake Placid (FL) Public Library and the Ruskin Branch of the Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library System. She was a lifelong member of the Lutheran church. Harriet is survived by a brother, John F. Heilman, of White Oak, South Carolina; her daughter, Margaret S. (Peggy) Steinfurth of Palmetto, Florida; and her son, Darwin H. Stapleton, of Os-sining, New York. She had five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Memorial services will be held on Saturday, January 31 at 1 p.m. at the Westminster Towers chapel, in Bradenton, Fl. and on February 8 in Berks County, Pennsyl-vania. In lieu of flowers her family requests donations to Westminster Towers, 1603 3rd Ave. West, Bradenton, FL 34205; Tidewell Hospice, 5955 Rand Blvd., Sarasota, FL 34238; Atonement Lutheran Church, 1744 Lakeview Dr., Sebring, FL 33870; or Department of Library Science and In-structional Technology, Kutztown Univ., P.O. Box 730, Kutztown, PA 19530. Arrangements entrusted to Lewers Funeral Home in Ruskin, Florida 813-645-3231