Hilde Eve Gasiorowicz Obituary (1931 - 2024)

Hilde Eve Gasiorowicz, 92, was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on Sept. 4, 1931, and died peacefully at the Masonic Home in Bloomington, MN, on May 25, 2024. Hilde and her family fled Nazi Germany in 1938, arriving in the United States as Jewish refugees. After graduating from Hunter College High School in NYC, she moved in with her grandfather and uncle in Los Angeles and attended UCLA where she met Stephen Gasiorowicz whom she married in 1953. In 1961, they moved to Minneapolis where they raised their three daughters, Nina, Cathy, and Mari. Hilde completed her Master of Social Work at the University of Minnesota in 1966 and built a fulfilling career as a psychotherapist, working at social service agencies and in private practice until she was 82. Hilde volunteered at Walk-In Counseling (WIC), co-facilitated therapy groups for children of Holocaust survivors, and at age 75, completed her psychoanalytic training, a long-held dream. When she was 57, Hilde became a Bat Mitzvah, a personal goal that deepened her Jewish education and identity. With Stephen’s help, Hilde organized dozens of hiking, backpacking, biking, skiing, canoeing, and mushrooming outings for family and friends. She hiked in Nepal, Bhutan, Patagonia, and Mexico, biked in France and New Zealand, and on her 90th and 91st birthdays, went canoe camping with her daughters. She and Stephen loved to entertain and hosted countless dinner parties. Hilde was feisty, generous, and adventurous to the max, and also demanding, impatient and stubborn. Although dementia can be cruel, it brought out the best in her. Still game for any adventure and endlessly generous, during her final years, Hilde was effusive in her love and appreciation of her daughters, friends, and caregivers. The family is grateful to the staff at The Kenwood where she lived for eight years, to all the wonderful caregivers at Masonic Home Memory Care, and to the entire Lifespark Hospice team. Hilde is predeceased by Stephen, her beloved husband of 63 years. She is survived by her daughters Nina McGehee (Rex), Cathy (Bob Beverage) and Mari; grandchildren, Hannah Anderson (Luke), Becca McGehee, Kyle Gasiorowicz, and Eliza Scholl; and great grandchildren, Ronin and Silas Anderson. Please join us on Sept. 15, 2024, at 4:30 pm at the Bakken Museum in Minneapolis to celebrate Hilde’s life. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be directed to the “Hilde Fromm Gasiorowicz Fellowship” at the University of Minnesota Foundation (https://z.umn.edu/9kj4) to support the next generation of social workers, or to any (liberal) cause.