Vija Abele Wurstner

WURSTNER, Vija Abele, age 88, of Oakwood, passed away peacefully Sunday, March 2, 2025. She was preceded in death by her husband Alan Wurstner and brother, Gunars Abele.
Vija was born in Liepaja, Latvia to Ernests and Erika Abele, and at the age of 9 fled with her family to avoid Soviet occupation. She spent 5 years with her family in a displaced persons (DP) refugee camp called Fischbach, located near Nuremberg, Germany. The Abele family emigrated to the U.S. in September 1949, settling in North Manchester, Indiana. Not long after, they moved to Ada, Ohio where Vija graduated from high school in 1954. She was very proud of becoming a U.S. citizen the next year.
She attended Ohio Northern University where she received her B.A. in Mathematics and Chemistry in 1958. After graduation, she landed a job at Mound Labs in Dayton where she worked as a computer programmer, writing code in assembly language and then Fortran, which required spending hours with keypunch machines. While serving as a member of the annual staff picnic committee, she met Alan Wurstner. This began their courtship, resulting in their eventual marriage on Saturday, April 23, 1960. Together they raised two daughters, Signe and Inge.
Her Latvian heritage was incredibly important to her, and she chose to pause her career so that she could teach her daughters her native tongue and share with them the traditions of her homeland, including favorite Latvian dishes that she loved to prepare. She was known for baking delicious Latvian pepper cookies each Christmas, and even arranged to have her daughter's fifth grade classmates learn to bake these holiday treats at the school. She enjoyed sharing her culture with others and often went to classrooms in her traditional Latvian dress to teach others about her homeland. She was an active member of the Dayton Latvian-American community and chaired the Latvian group for the World Affair International Festival for many years.
Inspired by reports from her daughters that there was a lack of "proper" substitute teachers for high school math classes, Vija earned a teaching certificate from the University of Dayton and went back to work, starting out as a substitute teacher at Oakwood High School. That led to a full time position teaching math and computer science at Hillel Academy and then training adults in computer languages and systems not even imagined when she first began working. She continued to take coursework to expand her technical skills in computer science and returned to the world of programming in 1995, enjoying a career as a database programmer. She retired in 2006 from CDO Technologies where she supported systems at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Vija had a passion for the arts and was a longtime patron of the Dayton Opera and the Dayton Ballet. She loved classical music and was an accomplished pianist as well as an organist for the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Dayton for many years. Also among her passions was a love of weaving, creating not only traditional folk costumes for her daughters but also beautiful Latvian belts and bookmarks that she loved to gift to friends and family. She provided the English translation for the 400+ page book, "Latviešu Jostas"/ "Latvian Sashes, Belts and Bands", published in 1982. Additionally, she founded the Latvian Folk Art Association, publishing over 80 quarterly newsletters to provide a forum for master folk artists to pass on their knowledge to younger generations and preserve the rich culture of the Latvian people.
Volunteerism was a virtue Vija held dear, and she gave countless hours to the Latvian American community, her children's classrooms and school activities, the Dayton Ballet, and the Weaver's Guild of Miami Valley to name only a few. But more importantly, she supported her husband Alan and his passions by learning to ski and play tennis, and by assisting him in running both the Montgomery County and YMCA Tennis Tournaments for over 25 years, which led to them both being inducted into the Dayton Tennis Hall of Fame in 1980.
Vija is survived by her daughters Signe (Mark) White and Inge Wurstner; sister Laima (Michael) Abele-Magnan; cousins Rusie (Nancy Eads) Pudis and Valda (Bob) Moore; nieces Susan (Vallie) Lazzaretto and Lisa (Kevin) Abele-Mabey; grandnephews Parker and Pierce Mabey; nephew Jack (Mary Lyn) Padley; grandniece Kirsten Padley, and three step-grandchildren, Taryn, Trevor and Jenna White.
Vija's contributions to the community, love for her family, as well as fabulous meals and baked treats will be missed by all who knew her. Her family is thankful for the support provided by Ohio's Hospice of Dayton. Vija loved her cats, who don't seem to appreciate flowers; therefore, in lieu of flowers we request donations be made to Ohio's Hospice, Dayton Region, or the Humane Society of Greater Dayton.
May She Rest In Peace
Calling hours for family to receive visiting friends to begin at 1pm; Memorial Service to begin at 2pm, both will be held at Schlientz & Moore Funeral Home on Saturday, April 26th, 2025. Reception to follow at VFW Post 9927 located at 3316 Wilmington Pike, Kettering. She will be laid to rest at Dayton National Cemetery, on Monday, April 28, 2025 at 11:00am.
Services and great care are entrusted to Schlientz & Moore Funeral Home. Condolences, fond memories and photos may be shared at: www.DaytonFunerals.com To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Vija, please visit our floral store.