Eugenie Obst, a former Domino Sugars chemist who fled her native Czechoslovakia when Communists took over the country, died of heart failure Dec. 15 at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore. The Guilford resident was 94.
Eugenie Funda was born in the city of Kladno in what is now the Czech Republic. She was the daughter of Ladislav Funda and Marie Pecena. She studied chemistry at Charles University in Prague. She was studying there when all institutions of higher education in the country were closed in 1939 in response to student protests of German occupation during World War II.
She married Jan Obst in Kladno in 1940 and the couple had two daughters. The family lived in Czechoslovakia until 1948, when they fled during a coup staged by the nation's Soviet Union-backed Communist Party. According to a 1974 obituary of Jan Obst published in The Baltimore Sun, the family was forced to flee the country because he was wanted for being a resistance fighter.
The family traveled to Germany, where they lived in a U.S. Army relocation camp for about two years. Then they moved to the United States, and a refugee agency placed the family on a farm in Phoenix, Baltimore County.
While her husband worked as an accountant and subsequently became a lawyer, Mrs. Obst became a short-order cook in a Baltimore cafe and later worked as a photo processor.
Mrs. Obst also resumed her education, studying at the Johns Hopkins University at night. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1965 and a master's degree in liberal arts from the school in 1970.
She later took a job as a lab technician at Domino Sugars in Baltimore and eventually became chief chemist. Daughter Ivana Turner of Baltimore said that upon retiring in 1985, Mrs. Obst was recognized for her contribution to methods of sugar analysis.
In 1952, the company's Domino News publication featured a story about the Obsts' escape from Czechoslovakia. Mrs. Obst's grandson, former Calvert School Headmaster Andrew Martire, said his grandmother felt indebted to the U.S. for giving the family a home.
"She was always proud of the fact that she was able to raise a family here. She was fiercely patriotic," said Dr. Martire, now headmaster of the Kinkaid School in Houston. "She was small in stature but great in her accomplishments and the impact she had on other people.
"When you think about my grandmother, you think about someone that lived the American dream," Dr. Martire said. "For many people today, they think politics is important but it doesn't have that much of an impact on their lives. Politics for her really did. It forced them to leave Czechoslovakia, and politics in the United States allowed them to come here."
Ms. Turner said that upon retirement, her mother volunteered at Union Memorial Hospital and the Bryn Mawr School library. Mrs. Obst was also president of the altar guild at St. John's Episcopal Church in Mount Washington, her daughter said.
Mr. and Mrs. Obst bred and showed Old English sheepdogs, one of which became a champion, according to Ms. Turner.
"She led a good life. She enjoyed life and was independent," said Austin McDonnell, a neighbor at Winthrop House on Charles Street. He said that Mrs. Obst spoke a lot about leaving Czechoslovakia and that she returned to her homeland at least once.
"It was difficult because they had an amount of success and a lovely home with lots of lovely things in it" in Czechoslovavia, said Mr. McDonnell. "Basically, they had to walk out the door and leave everything in it."
Ms. Turner said her mother enjoyed swimming, reading and discussing politics, and was a talented cook. Mr. McDonnell could attest to the latter accomplishment.
"Sometimes there were marvelous smells wafting from her apartment," Mr. McDonnell said. "I know that over the years, she enjoyed [cooking]. She was a marvelous neighbor."
A memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m. Jan. 2 at the chapel of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St., Baltimore
In addition to her daughter and grandson, survivors include another daughter, Jane White of Bensalem, Pa.; two other grandsons; and four great-grandchildren.