Ursula Fournier Motulsky

Ursula Fournier Motulsky

November 14, 1925 - November 5, 2024

Celebration of Life will be held at the University Club NYC at 4:45 pm on November 26, 2024 (see Club address and dress code at bottom)

Ursula Fournier was born in Berlin Germany in 1925 and grew up with privations and challenges caused by Germany's deep depression, which worsened during WWII and under the oppressions of the Nazi era that she so detested. Ursula's grandfather was Jewish, so as her mother explained, the family moved to a small town to "lay low" during the war. Except when in required youth work programs, Ursula grew up above her family's restaurant Max und Moritz, which was in one of the only buildings in the area that survived the bombing of Berlin, and which has nearly continuously operated from 1902 through the present.

After the war, Ursula attended Berlin's Humbolt University. She began dating Claus Motulsky who also had been born in Berlin, but as a Jew escaped before the war and had been a U.S. non-commissioned intelligence officer on the Western Front, and who stayed in Germany after the war to work for the U.S. State Department in its denazification program. In 1948, Claus returned to his family in NYC (where they had fled from Germany after Kristallnacht), attended NYU Law School on the GI Bill and graduated second in his class despite not having finished high school or college. Ursula and Claus lost touch after Claus left Germany. Stunning and personable, Ursula was selected to be one of the initial handful of German stewardesses on British Air, the first airline with service to Berlin after the war, which was a well-paid and glamorous job attained after robust competition. Few men of her age had survived the war intact; thus she hadn't found a life partner when Claus wrote to her in 1954 and casually asked if they could meet during his planned vacation in Berlin. Though they hadn't communicated in six years, Claus privately hoped the old spark would survive, and tentatively planned to ask her to marry him during that specially planned trip. The spark was alive, he asked, she said yes, and they were married during his one week vacation in Berlin.

Ursula soon moved to NYC and began her happy marriage and family life in NYC, first living in an apartment in Washington Heights and then Rego Park, and finally in 1959 moving into the Forest Hills house she lived in for the rest of her life. She had three children - John, Michele and Dan - whom she inculcated with values of respect and empathy and helped develop academically and personally. Ursula was active in the community including as president of the school parents association, took care of her parents and was a supportive friend to many. She and Claus were avid fans of the arts, including fine arts, ballet and opera.

After her daughter Michele suffered a head injury with complete retrograde amnesia from a near fatal auto accident in Australia where she had been working as a geologist, Ursula spent two years in Australia nursing Michele back to health. Michele had to relearn everything from what a spoon was to how to read, and Ursula's patience, love and unending dedication and support helped Michele recover and thrive in a manner that no doctor thought possible.

Claus's sudden death 28 years ago at age 73 was another body blow, but Ursula maintained her positive outlook and happily shared her home with Michele for the rest of her life. Initially she took care of Michele, then they took care of each other, and towards the end it was Michele who took care of Ursula. Ursula and Michele skied together until Ursula was 84, and they still traveled together after that. Until her final day, Ursula took daily walks around her neighborhood. She loved her house and garden, and achieved her goal of living independently in her home until the end.

Ursula was close to her sons as well, and was proud of their success. She was always there for support, including babysitting services, and she relished hosting and joining family get-togethers and vacations. She loved and marveled at her grandchildren (Margo, Reed, Curtis, Arno, Axel and Nathaniel), and did her best to be an important part of their lives. She engaged with her grandchildren on their terms, more as an equal than an elder, and they often called her Ursula as well as grandma. She also dearly loved and was loved and supported by her daughter-in-law Wendy. Through the end her grandchildren, children and daughter-in-law reciprocated by regularly visiting and calling her and Michele. Ursula died peacefully on November 5, 2024, days before her 99th birthday, surrounded by her three children, Wendy and grandchildren.

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The Celebration of Life will take place at the University Club at 1 West 54th Street in Manhattan at 4:45 pm on Tuesday, November 26, 2024. The University Club dress code requires sports jackets and collared shirts for men and comparable business/dressy attire for women. The following are not permitted for men or women: jeans and other denim apparel, sport leisurewear of any type, leggings, T-shirts, athletic clothing, and sneakers or other athletic shoes.