Helen Krogh Dies at 78 Started Widowed Persons Assn. And I swore I would beat her at the next Upwords tournament. Well, Helen took up that short sentence like a beacon, proclaiming it over every little annoyance we encountered thereafter, laughing out loud. Upon those multiple defeats, I uttered emphatic exasperation with the shortest Biblical verse, "Jesus wept!" She challenged me to a tournament and won every round. Helen pooh-poohed us and said "Haven't you discovered Upwords? Play that and you'll never go back to Scrabble." (Turns out she was right about that.) The next day she found the game and plopped it in my lap. When she and her buddy Arlene visited in Oregon, Arlene and I set about playing Scrabble.
Now catapult forward in time and you'll see Helen and me reunited in the last few years of her life. And then she really did become the parent to some of us who needed better parents. She let us drive her big boat of a car downtown to Harris' Department Store for Tyro Weekly photo shoots right after we got our learner's permits. Helen gave us some rope, but hey, she checked in on us regularly. Our introduction to college boys on the beach and rum in our Coke. There was that memorable Spring Break week at Laguna Beach in 1966. And the lives of others-just take a look at the successes of Dodie Alsop, Cathy Armstrong, Roger Smith, Jan Sears and many more. Her teaching is a strong fiber that still weaves through the fabric of my writing life. Forest Service and my own writing endeavors. The elements of good solid journalism she imparted set the foundation for my writing in college, a career in public affairs with the U.S. She was one of few who had true affect AND effect on us juveniles.
A lot happened in both our lives in those 35 years.īack in the days at San Bernardino High School, Helen towered over most of the other teachers in my esteem. In 1967 we all graduated and scattered I didn't see her again until 2002.
I was one of Helen's Tyro Weekly journalistic staffers.
#SKI OR DIE TATTOO FULL#
"She was brilliant, a great deal of fun and the biggest-hearted person in the world."įor a long time now, I have described Helen to others as "larger than life, like Auntie Mame, a New York broad with a loud mouth." This is the idea of Helen I carry around in me with full respect and affection. "She would quote Shakespeare one moment then tell a joke the next," said Dodie Alsop, a former student. From 1963 to 1967, Krogh taught at San Bernardino High School and was "proudest of the lives she touched as a teacher," which included those of many journalism students who stayed in touch, her son said.