Full Stop In Memoriam, Helen Reeve

In Memoriam, Helen Reeve

Helen Schmidinger Reeve, Ph.D. died on December 11, 2021, in Bennington, VT.

“She had great joy in connecting with dear friends and family, especially in conversation, over cocktails, or when listening to live musical performances. Words and ideas mattered a great deal—from great literature to the classroom, to the nuances of translation, to the integrity of personal communication,” according to Reeve’s obituary published in The Middletown Press. Born in 1927 in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia), Helen grew up in Belgrade. She survived and escaped from internment during World War II, worked as a translator for the former United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), and then arrived in the United States as a young bride of a U.S. soldier and German scholar, Matthew Cohen.

After her arrival in Chicago, Helen earned her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and her master’s and doctorate in Russian Studies at Columbia University. Her teaching career spanned three decades at Connecticut College, where she became the Hanna Hafkesbrink Professor of Russian and European Studies and was appointed Associate Director for Languages in CISLA in 1989.

She was a much-admired teacher, did important literary work as a translator and was a beloved colleague and friend to many.

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Floralia returned to Conn on May 7, 2022. Guests included IDK, Iyaz and Sammy Adams.