Ursula Solmitz Osborne

1927 - 2022

Ursula Osborne

Ursula Osborne (Solmitz) died on 28 February 2022 at her apartment at Timber Ridge Assisted Living in McKinleyville. She was receiving hospice care after a brief hospitalization for pneumonia and congestive heart failure. She was 94 years old.
Ursula was born in Hamburg, Germany on 11 November 1927. Her parents were Robert Solmitz, an attorney, and Hertha Solmitz (Goldschmidt), a horticulturist. In 1938, as part of a Kindertransport to avoid the increasingly oppressive Nazi regime, her parents sent Ursula and her siblings, Ruth and Martin, to Bunch Court School in Kent, England. Her parents remained in Hamburg where Robert worked for the Warburg Bank and maintained a safe house for Jews and others opposed to the Nazis. Her parents escaped Nazi Germany in 1941 through Portugal and New York, finally settling in Los Angeles. In 1944, Ursula and Ruth reunited with their parents in the new family home in Los Angeles. Ursula attended UCLA and in 1948 obtained a bachelor's degree in Chemistry. In 1948, she married Clyde Osborne, whom she met in a UCLA chemistry class. In 1949 she obtained her United States citizenship and moved to Berkeley where she worked as a chemistry laboratory assistant while Clyde pursued a graduate degree. She also lived in Madison, Wisconsin; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Long Beach before moving to Arcata in 1984.
Ursula was a teacher of mathematics and GATE in Pico Rivera from 1965 to 1984, and then did substitute teaching in Eureka and Samoa. In 1996, she volunteered for the Peace Corps and served two years as a high school chemistry teacher in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Ursula was proud to be an educator and advocate for human rights and those less fortunate in society. She was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Sierra Club, and the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (HUUF). She was active in the Social Action Committee, the Building Committee, the Interfaith Fellowship, and Arcata House Partnership. In 2003, Ursula created the HR Solmitz Archive to preserve her parents' legacy and served as President until it was dissolved in 2021. The contents of the archive were submitted to the Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish American History in New York City. In 2009, Ursula's German to English translation of family friend Heinrich Liebrecht's memoir was published as, "Not to Hate But to Love, That is What I Am Here For". In 2013, Ursula's translation of Heinrich's play, "Requiem", about his life in the Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt, was performed under the direction and collaboration of John Heckel at the HUUF.
Ursula lived at Timber Ridge for the last five years of her life where she made many friends, started a book club, participated in field trips, bingo, exercise classes, and enjoyed doing jig saw puzzles.
Ursula was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and her siblings. She is survived by her two sons Stanley Osborne of Emeryville; Neal Osborne of Arcata; and three grandsons Nelson Osborne of Condon, Montana; Marco Osborne of Verdi, Nevada; and Logan Osborne of Novato; and many other relatives.
A celebration of Ursula's life will be held on Saturday, 27 August, 2022 at 2:00 P.M. at the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bayside.