About Helen

Helen was fearless and passionate and loyal and opinionated, and we miss her every day. She laughed often and easily, and frequently at herself. She was forever dragging people into adventures, often over their protests. She loved new places and new people, and was a constant traveler. Helen was a lifelong athlete: a swimmer, a tennis player, a runner, a skier, a hiker; she found joy in movement and sports suited her restless spirit. She loved the Appalachian Trail and had many happy times there. She was a daughter of the flat lands, but mountains spoke to her soul.

Helen Reder Eltzeroth was born in 1940 to Wesley and Geneva. She grew up a Hoosier, smack dab in the middle of Indiana. She was the only one in her family of five children to graduate college – go IUPUI! She went on to receive her Masters from VCU. She was always learning, raised four children on her own, and had two successful, very different careers. She was a success in the business world at a time that was not kind to women. She paved the way for many women who came after her.

After a career in the mortgage banking industry, she started her own consulting firm with a former colleague from FNMA. That was fun, but as she grew older, she wanted to learn more so she went back to school for her Masters in Gerontology, all while working odd jobs at car rentals, gyms, agencies on aging, you name it. She did what she could to pursue her work in gerontology. She had a successful second career as a policy-side gerontologist and published many papers on aging related subjects.

But since that wasn’t enough, she decided to write her memoir. She wrote and published it in her 70’s. (You can find it on Amazon by clicking on the book cover below.