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Helen Streed Watts 100, of Bethany Home, passed away Thursday, June 8, 2017 at Bethany Home. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at Westminster Presbyterian Church with Rev. Hal Murray officiating. Interment will be in Middletown Cemetery, Middletown, Iowa. Friends may call from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Monday at the Egelhof, Siegert & Casper Westview Funeral Home and Crematory, 2659 JFK Rd.
Helen and a twin brother, Howard, were born on December 19, 1916 at Fairfield, Iowa, to Grace (Howard) Streed and August W. Streed. She attended elementary school in Fairfield and Middletown, Iowa, graduating from the Burlington, Iowa High School in 1935 and Junior College in 1937. Helen received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Iowa State Teachers College, Cedar Falls in 1941 and a Masters Degree in Educational Supervision and Administration from the University of Iowa in 1955.
Helen married William J. Watts from Brooklyn N.Y., in 1944 at Norfolk, Va.
In her 42 years of teaching, she taught at all levels from kindergarten to college, beginning her career in a rural school, (Concordia), in Des Moines County, Iowa, in 1937. Securing her college degree she taught in high school at Montezuma, Iowa until WWII in which she served as a WAVE. After the war she was employed as a high school teacher in Brooklyn, N.Y. for a year, and then in 1949 became principal teacher at the Middletown, Iowa elementary school.
Because her husband served in the Navy, she continued as a teacher and as a principal in the Department of Defense schools in Trinidad, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Rota, Spain and Sidi Yahia, Morocco. When the family moved to Dubuque in 1957 she taught briefly at the University of Dubuque. Returning to Dubuque in 1964 she taught at Irving Elementary school. In 1965, she was employed by the University of Dubuque as an Assistant Professor of Education, retiring in 1982. Helen was a member of several educational organizations, including Phi Delta Kappa, Kappa Delta Pi, Delta kappa Gamma and a Life Member of the Iowa State Teachers Association and the NEA. She also was a member of the Dubuque Chapter of the AAUW and the IP chapter of the P.E.O. Helen was a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church where she served as Moderator of the Presbyterian Women and as an Elder for several terms. She represented the church on several committees in the John Knox Presbytery. Her special interest was in Camp Courageous of Iowa where she served on the Board for 21 years.
Helen was preceded in death by her husband and parents and twin brother. She is survived by a daughter, Nora Lynn Whittemore of Sammamish, Washington and by a son, John (Carol Werner) Watts of Madelia, Minnesota and four grandchildren, Adrienne, (Darryl) Schulz and Frank (Mary) Whittemore of Kirkland, Washington and Kristine(John Hoyer) Whittemore and Cory Watts of Lexington, Kentucky. She has four Great-Grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers all memorials may be given to Camp Courageous of Iowa, Westminster Presbyterian Church and the University of Dubuque.