Elizabeth S. Lottich, who established a Federal Hill soup kitchen and the Christ Lutheran Place Shelter for homeless women and children, died June 3 from heart failure at Augsberg Lutheran Home.
The former Catonsville and Uniontown resident was 88.
Elizabeth Virginia Smith, the daughter of a Lutheran minister and a homemaker, was born and raised in Selinsgrove, Pa., where her father was president of Susquehanna University.
After graduating in 1942 from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Va., she returned to her father's college where she worked as his personal secretary for two years.
In 1944, she married the Rev. G. Paul Lottich, a Lutheran minister, who was assistant pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in West Baltimore.
After serving at churches in Ohio and Roanoke, Va., they moved in 1961 to Catonsville when Mr. Lottich was named pastor of Salem Lutheran Church.
During her husband's 15-year tenure at Salem, Mrs. Lottich coordinated a Meals On Wheels route and worked for Lutheran Social Services.
After her husband retired from active ministry in 1976, Mrs. Lottich joined Christ Lutheran Church in Federal Hill, and after her husband's death in 1986, she approached its pastor, the Rev. John R. Sabatelli, with a proposition.
"I was pastor when she proposed a soup kitchen in the undercroft of the church. She was a great champion of social justice and ministries," recalled Mr. Sabatelli.
"I was getting burned out and couldn't imagine managing something else. Elizabeth said to me, 'Just bless it and get out of the way,' " he said, with a laugh.
By 1989, the soup kitchen gave way to an emergency men's shelter, which evolved into a shelter for homeless women and children in 1997.
The men's shelter moved to another location and the shelter for women and children is now managed by Baltimore Outreach Services, a nonprofit subsidiary of Christ Lutheran Church.
"She was an amazing woman. Elizabeth had been trained as a social worker and always had a passion for people who had been marginalized," Mr. Sabatelli said.
"She threw herself into this wholeheartedly. Days and days, weeks and weeks, and years and years. She gave it her all," he said.
"That's what she devoted her life to. She wanted to help people and that's what she did to the end. And she made a phenomenal difference in their lives," Mr. Sabatelli said.
Dr. Karen Adkins is director of social ministries at Christ Lutheran Church.
"She was passionate about serving the poor and she felt it was part of her faith to help those less fortunate," said Dr. Adkins. "She was incredibly faithful and whatever was going on here at church, she was a part of it."
When Mrs. Lottich turned 80, she gave herself a special birthday present.
"She took the residents on a boat ride around the harbor, and for some of them, it was the first time they had ever been in a boat," Dr. Adkins recalled.
When Christ Church established a transition house for women and their families in the 1800 block of Light St., the rowhouse was named Elizabeth House in honor of Mrs. Lottich's devotion to helping the homeless.
"She was just a wonderful person who was so inspiring to everyone," Dr. Adkins said.
Page Croyder, a case manager for Baltimore Outreach Services, is another longtime friend.
"She was the driving force behind the social ministry committee at Christ Lutheran. It was just a passion of hers to want to help," Ms. Croyder said.
Mrs. Lottich was an avid reader and traveler, and enjoyed attending concerts of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Mrs. Lottich remained active at her church until her health began to fail last year and she moved to the Augsberg Lutheran Home in Lochearn.
A memorial service for Mrs. Lottich will be held at 2 p.m. June 26 at her church, 701 S. Charles St.
Surviving are a son, Jonathan Lottich of Baltimore; a daughter, Mary Howard of Westminster; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.