Helen Dermer

1931 - 2023

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

BOWLING GREEN - Helen Wise Dermer, a teacher of elementary students who as a Bowling Green State University faculty member instructed prospective teachers, died Nov. 25 at Otterbein Pemberville SeniorLife Community in Wood County's Troy Township. She was 92.

The cause was heart failure, her daughter, Emily Loen, said. Mrs. Dermer moved to Otterbein about five months ago from her Bowling Green home.

She retired in December, 1982, as an assistant professor of educational curriculum and instruction at BGSU, but continued to teach part time until 1985.

She had a bachelor's degree in education from BGSU and was hired to the faculty after she received her master's degree in 1960. She guided her university students in how to teach reading and language arts, Mrs. Loen said.

"She liked sending her students out into the local elementary schools and watching them teach their lessons and implement everything she taught them," her daughter said.

Mrs. Dermer, while a teacher at Conneaut School in Bowling Green in the late 1950s, took leaves to teach at U.S. Navy Bases in Sasebo, Japan, and then in Naples, Italy.

"She loved it," Mrs. Loen said. "She toured the Far East extensively. She toured the Middle East. She toured Europe."

In 1962, during Student Teachers' Professional Day at BGSU, she spoke about teaching opportunities available in Japan and Italy, according to an article then in the student newspaper, the BG News.

She began her career by teaching at Longfellow School in Fostoria, recalled Pat McGinnis, a Fostoria native who was teaching at the school then.

"We had a fabulous time, as single gals," said Mrs. McGinnis, who retired in 1980 as principal of Bowling Green's Conneaut School and later served on Bowling Green City Council. "I saw her as a very excellent elementary teacher.

"Everything she did she did well," she said. "She was always positive. She really was a gem."

Mrs. Dermer in Bowling Green first taught at the then-Church Street School. A photo posted on the Wood County District Public Library's "Black Swamp Memories" digital scrapbook shows "Miss Helen Wise" with four rows of students posed outside the school - her 1952-53 fifth grade class. She also taught second grade through the years.

After the Church school closed, she taught at the new Conneaut Elementary building.

"She was kind and encouraging and methodical and thorough," Mrs. Loen said. She expected students to stay in their seats and raise their hands as well.

"I don't think she was unique in that expectation," her daughter said. "She loved reading and loved teaching children to read."

She was born April 10, 1931, to Marie and John Wise, the third of what would be six children. She grew up on the family farm near Old Fort, Ohio, where she tended to her pet lamb, but also collected eggs from the chickens, and cared for her younger siblings.

"She did whatever needed to be done. That's what people did back then," Mrs. Loen said.

She took piano lessons and played for productions at Old Fort High School, of which she was a 1949 graduate. As a teacher, she played for her elementary students. Decades later in Bowling Green, she was a pianist for the musical group Star Billing, in which she and friends played and sang at nursing homes and for banquets and other events.

"She was trying to bring a little joy to people living in retirement homes," her daughter said.

She continued her education at her mother's encouragement to find a career doing something she loved.

"She loved teaching," Mrs. Loen said.

In retirement, Mrs. Dermer organized activities for the Wood County Retired Teachers Association and the BGSU Retirees Association - including an annual outing to a Toledo Mud Hens game.

She helped install medical alert systems for senior citizens, a project through the Wood County Hospital Guild and was active in committees of her church, First United Methodist in Bowling Green. She was supportive, especially of Philanthropic Educational Organization, an international group known as P.E.O, which helps women with education opportunities through, in part, scholarships.

Even in the last year, she and Mrs. McGinnis met at the senior citizens center in Bowling Green on Wednesdays for an exercise class.

"I cared about her a lot," Mrs. McGinnis said. "We would have lunch afterward. It was so nice to be together a little bit."

She and Rolland Dermer married in 1976. He died in 1995.

Surviving are her daughter, Emily Loen; brother Bob Wise, and three grandchildren Evan, Eloise and Davis.

Memorial services will begin at 11 a.m. Monday at First United Methodist Church in Bowling Green. Arrangements are by Dunn Funeral Home, Bowling Green.

The family suggests tributes to Ashanti Hospice of Otterbein Pemberville SeniorLife Community or to the church.