GRIESBAUM, Hildegard

Hildegard Griesbaum was born on October 22, 1924 in Berlin, Germany and passed away on Tuesday May 22, 2007 at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea after a brief illness. Hildegard grew up in the Tempelhof District of Berlin. During the WWII the Berlin airlift flew directly overhead every three minutes, shaking her apartment house like an earthquake. The airlift delivered the life saving supplies to the German citizens. In 1947, she married her childhood friend Rudolf, who worked at the airlift. Their first child Peter was born in 1948. Her dream was to become a fashion designer but that dream was not a viable reality during war time. A friend had admired her drawings and analytical abilities and arranged for an apprentiship at Siemens in Berlin. It was at Siemens where she learned structural drafting for water and waste treatment plants. In 1955 she immigrated to Phoenix, a diametrically different culture and climate than Berlin, with her husband Rudolph and six year old Peter. Shortly thereafter she gave birth to her second child, Sylvia. She approached John Carollo Engineering in Phoenix for employment and even with her very broken English they hired her. She will always be grateful to John Carollo Engineering, who provided her with a stable work environment while allowing her to work on technically challenging projects throughout her 32 years of employment. Hildegard endured many personal challenges in her first few years in the U.S. She separated from her husband shortly after immigrating to the U.S. and raised Peter and Sylvia in a time when a single working mother was not the norm. She retired from John Carollo Engineering in 1990 and built her dream retirement home in Sedona. During her retirement she loved to spend time with her hobbies which included photography, gardening, sewing and restyling her clothes. She was surrounded by gracious and generous neighbors and friends, which allowed her to enjoy her independence until her brief illness. She was preceded in death by her son, Peter Griesbaum (2005) who she dearly loved. Her surviving family includes daughter, Sylvia Westlye & son-in-law, Kevin Westlye of Lafayette, CA, her grandsons Chase (Chico, CA - CSUC) & Chris (Redding, CA - SCC Fire Fighting Academy) and her daughter-in-law Vera Griesbaum of Phoenix. A private family service was held in the Big Trees Village/ Dorrington, CA - a place she loved. In lieu of flowers, the family requests a donation in her name to the Sedona Community Center 928-282-2834 (http://www.accsedona.org /taxcredit/index.html). Published in The Arizona Republic from 5/27/2007 - 6/3/2007.