Estelle PEARSON

1929 - 2019

PEARSON, Estelle Teresa Ended her earthly sojourn on July 20, 2019 at the Hospice of Dayton. Born February 8, 1929 in Bangor, Maine to Mary (Blinn) & Urban Sidelinker, Estelle's childhood was shaped by her family's travails during the Great Depression. Working part time while attending high school in Houlton, Maine, Estelle graduated in 1946 with an interest in fabrics and enough money to travel to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where she enrolled at the Textile Institute (NBTI), joining a class of herself and 33 men in the textile engineering program. Estelle received her engineering degree from NBTI and moved to Manhattan where she spent the 1950s working for Dan River Mills as a fabric designer. Estelle met John Henry Pearson Jr. of Jersey City, NJ, while bowling in a CYO league and they were married in 1959 at St. Michael's Monastery Church in Hudson County, NJ. Estelle and John were married for 53 years, until his death in 2012, residing in Union, NJ and later in Cincinnati, Ohio. Estelle is remembered fondly by her five children & their spouses: Stephen & Harriet, Teresa & David, Christina & Alan, Thomas, Vincent & Dana, her grandchildren Elijah, Catherine, Ahren Joshua, Jesse, Nathaniel, Megan, Ian, Aiden, and her great-grandchild Lilly. In the 1980s, Estelle obtained a degree in Industrial Engineering from the Cincinnati Technical College with the intent to pursue a second career in manufacturing process design. Encountering a general lack of interest to hire women into those roles, Estelle joined the Hamilton County Park Service, where she worked for several decades in various administrative capacities, retiring in her sixties but continuing as a volunteer into her eighties. Estelle left her textile industry career with Dan River in the early 1960s, but continued to produce, teach and share her textile artistry into her eighties. She was a member of the First Mountain Crafters while she lived in NJ and in 1974 joined the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati (WGGC). She has donated her extensive collection of looms, tools and materials to the WGGC to inspire others working in these arts and crafts. A gallery showcasing a few examples of Estelle's work is available on the WGGC website (http://www.weaversguildcincinnati.org/gallery/estelle_pearson.php). Donations to support the educational activities of the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati may be mailed to 4870 Gray Road, Cincinnati, OH 45232. Estelle has donated her body to the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Upon the completion of medical studies her ashes will be interred at the College's memorial at Spring Grove Cemetery.