Helen E. Heydrick: Civic Volunteer

"Helen E. Heydrick, 89, member of panel that drafted City Charter"
(Text of obituary published May, 1983 in the Philadelphia Inquirer)

Helen E. Heydrick, 89, who served on the commission that drafted Philadelphia's Home Rule Charter of 1951, died Thursday at Evangelical Manor, 8401 Roosevelt Blvd., after a long illness.
  Mrs. Heydrick, who was active in church and community affairs for 50 years, was the only woman member of the charter commission.
  In 1954, she was named Pennsylvania Mother of the Year.  She retired in 1968 as head of the community services department of the Greater Philadelphia Council of Churches.
   Mrs. Heydrick was widely known as a popular speaker on inspirational themes and estimated that she had given one talk "The Art of Living Together" more than 2,000 times.
   She was born Helen Eyles in Chicago and came to Philadelphia at the age of 6.  She was a member of the first graduating class of William Penn High School in 1912.
  Mrs. Heydrick worked as an insurance agent before joining the Council of Churches in 1947.
  She began her volunteer work with a Red Cross fund drive in 1917 during the last days of World War I.  In 1925 she helped establish a well-baby clinic in Bridesburg, the first clinic of its kind in Northeast Philadelphia.
  Mrs. Heydrick also organized and became the first president of the Home and School Council of Harding Junior High School and was president and a board member of the Women's Auxiliary of Goodwill Industries.
  She also helped organize and served on the board of the Auxiliary of the Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry.
  She was named Pennsylvania Mother of the Year in 1954 by the governor and was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania in 1966.
  In 1963, she was honored for her half century of community work with a reception attended by 400 people at Moore College of Art.
  She served in various leadership positions with a number of community organizations, including the United Fund, the Health and Welfare Council, the Crime Prevention Association, the Crime Commission, the YWCA, the Philadelphia Center for Older People and the Soroptomists International of Philadelphia.
  Mrs. Heydrick also served as secretary-treasurer of the board of hospitals and homes of the Philadelphia Conference of the United Methodist Church.
  She was a member of the Business and Professional Women's Club of Philadelphia, the World Affairs Council and the League of Women Voters.  She was an honorary member of the Temple University Women's Club.
  After retiring from the Council of Churches, she directed a program of education for engaged couples and a family-life education project for low-income areas in connection with the Marriage Council of Philadelphia.
  Mrs. Heydrick was a longtime member of Bridesburg United Methodist Church, where she taught Sunday School for more than 50 years and was active in interfaith activities in Northeast Philadelphia.
  She is survived by three daughters, Helen H. Dutcher of Philadelphia, Margaret Beyer of Santa Ana, Calif. and Eleanor McKeeman of Aurora, Colo; 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
  Services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Bridesburg United Methodist Church, Kirkbride and Thompson Streets.