Helen S. Shoemaker
Author, church leader
Helen Smith Shoemaker, an author, sculptor and church leader, died of a stroke Friday at Meridian Healthcare Center in Brooklandville. She was 89.
The former Helen Dominick Smith was born in New York City. She was the daughter of the late H. Alexander Smith, who was a U.S. senator from New Jersey from 1944 to 1958, and Helen Babcock Dominick.
Mrs. Shoemaker attended schools in Colorado, Princeton, N.J., and Florence, Italy.
She also studied art in Paris and New York.
In 1930, she married the Rev. Samuel Moor Shoemaker, who was rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York.
The family moved to Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh in 1952 and retired to a home in the Greenspring Valley of Baltimore County in 1962. Mr. Shoemaker died in 1963.
Mrs. Shoemaker was the author of five religious books, many articles on prayer, and a biography of her late husband, "I Stand by the Door."
Mrs. Shoemaker, along with Polly Wiley of Pound, N.Y., began organizing the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer in the 1940s. The organization is now based in Orlando, Fla.
She was the keynote speaker at President Kennedy's Presidential Prayer Breakfast in 1962 and represented the Episcopal Church at the First Evangelical Congress in Switzerland at the invitation of evangelist Billy Graham.
In her early 70s, Mrs. Shoemaker began sculpting again. She created a series of bronze statues of archangels, a head of Christ and several other works now owned by churches and other religious organizations.
A lifelong champion of the lay ministry and the role of women in the church, Mrs. Shoemaker also supported civil rights.
She is survived by two daughters, Canon Sally Shoemaker Robinson of Baltimore and Helen Shoemaker Haggart of Sanibel Island, Fla.; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Services will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Thomas Church, on St. Thomas Lane in Owings Mills.
The family suggested memorial gifts to the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer, P.O. Box 31, Orlando, Fla. 32802; to St. Thomas Church, St. Thomas Lane, Owings Mills 21117; or the Episcopal Social Ministries of the Diocese of Maryland, 4 East University Parkway, Baltimore 21218.
Dr. F. N. Schwentker
Pittsburgh urologist
Dr. Frederic Noel Schwentker, a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine graduate who became a leading urologic surgeon in Pittsburgh, died of cancer on Tuesday in a Pittsburgh hospital. He was 58.
He was an associate professor of urologic surgery and chief of the Division of Urologic Surgery from 1967 to 1975 at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Dr. Schwentker was a member of the team that performed some of the earliest kidney transplants in Western Pennsylvania.
He was recently honored by the announcement of a campaign to establish an endowment in urologic surgery in his name at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Born in New York, Dr. Schwentker earned his bachelor's degree from Haverford College in 1956 and a medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1960.
He received additional training in urologic surgery at the Brady Institute of the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Dr. Schwentker served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force from 1965 to 1967.
He was an avid sailor and an active member and elder of the Sixth Presbyterian Church of Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh.
He is survived by his wife, Mariellen, of Pittsburgh; two sons, Frederic Francis Schwentker of New Haven, Conn., and Andrew Edwards Schwentker, of York, Pa.; a sister, Ann Schwentker Phillips of Baltimore; and a brother, Dr. Edwards Park Schwentker of Hummelstown, Pa.
A memorial service is scheduled at the Heinz Memorial Chapel on the University of Pittsburgh campus at 4 p.m. tomorrow.
The family suggested memorial contributions to the Frederic N. Schwentker Endowment in Urologic Surgery, UPMC Development Office, 3514 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213, or to the Sixth Presbyterian CHurch Memorial Fund, Forbes and Murray Aves., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15217.
Carl Bode
Memorial service set
A memorial service for Carl Bode, an educator, biographer of H. L. Mencken and historian of Maryland, will be held at 3 p.m. Friday at the University of Maryland Memorial Chapel in College Park.
A reception will follow at the Rossborough Inn on the campus.
Dr. Bode died of a stroke on Jan. 5 at his home in Chestertown. He was 81.
The Milwaukee native began teaching American history at the University of Maryland in College Park in 1947.
He taught at the university for 35 years, retiring to emeritus status in 1982.
Dr. Bode wrote poems, books and essays until his health began failing about a year ago. He was the first biographer of Mencken and was the founder of the Mencken Society of Baltimore.
From the early 1970s and into the 1990s, Dr. Bode wrote occasional columns for The Evening Sun editorial pages.
Dr. Bode's first wife, the former Margaret Lutze, died in 1970. He married the former Charlotte Smith in 1972.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by three daughters, Barbara Bode of Washington, Janet Bode of New York City and Carolyn Bode of Santa Monica, Calif.
The family suggested contributions to The Bode Prize. Dr. Bode started the cash award 20 years ago to reward the students who write the best dissertation and the best thesis in the English Department each year.
Contributions toward the prize may be made by sending checks payable to the University of Maryland and mailed to Dr. Eugene Hammond, Chairman of the Department of English, University of Maryland, College Park 20742.
Dorothy P. Ridgely
Sportswoman, 100
Dorothy Powell Ridgely, a sportswoman and lover of the outdoors, died Friday of pneumonia at her Lutherville home. She was 100.
Mrs. Ridgely "had a really extensive interest in wildlife and in dogs and in gardening and in outdoor sports and in literature," said Andrew Thomas, her son-in-law.
Either as participant or spectator, Mrs. Ridgely enjoyed sports and pastimes such as trout fishing, hiking, gardening and horse racing into her 90s.
Family members said she had a knack for socializing with people of all ages.
She was a member of the Mount Vernon Club, the Amateur Gardeners Club in Baltimore and the Colonial Dames of America.
Born in Baltimore, Mrs. Ridgely attended the Bryn Mawr School and finished her studies in Italy.
She spoke French and Italian fluently.
She later took continuing education courses at Goucher College in subjects such as literature and art.
The former Dorothy Powell was married for 61 years to D. Stewart Ridgely, a banker with Equitable Trust Company. He died in 1978.
She is survived by a daughter, Dorothy Ridgely Thomas of Lutherville; a son, David Stewart Ridgely Jr. of Cockeysville; eight grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.
Services were scheduled for 3 p.m. today at Trinity Episcopal Church, 120 West Allegheny Ave. in Towson.
The family has suggested memorial contributions to the Bryn Mawr School, 109 Melrose Ave., Baltimore 21210, or the Baltimore Zoo, Druid Hill Park, Baltimore 21217.