Helga Alexandra Paggi

Helga Alexandra Paggi (née Hermos), 63, of Toms River, NJ passed away peacefully on January 10, 2024 surrounded by her family. Helga was a talented and accomplished woman—a beautiful tall blonde with a radiant and inviting smile, amazing intellect, artistic and musical prowess, infinite energy and passion, and ability to get things done. Helga was very personable and engaging and her friends almost always appreciated her direct style of communication.

Helga was born in New York City on August 15, 1960. Her family soon moved to Suffern, NY where she had an active childhood. She was a member of Glinka – a group that performed Russian folk dances. She danced, sang, and played the accordion. She traveled with Glinka to the Soviet Union during the Cold War era where they performed and received training. She was the goalie on the Suffern High School soccer team and was a slalom ski racer during the winter months.

Despite guidance from her father and uncle that engineering was not an appropriate career for a woman, Helga received her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Buffalo in 1982. She was hired by AT&T Bell Labs upon her graduation who sent her to Cornell University where she received her Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1983. She had a successful 20+ year career at Bell Labs and later Lucent Technologies where she was promoted into upper management in recognition of her intelligence and character.

She retired from Lucent in 2004 to spend more time with her three boys. She became a teacher at Monsignor Donovan (now Donovan Catholic) High School teaching math and science. She created the Computer Science and Robotics curriculum. She was a role model to many, especially young women. She received countless letters from students that read like “Dear Mrs. Paggi. Two years ago, I had no idea what programming was and now I am going to major in Computer Science in college. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm.” Mrs. Paggi’s room was always full of students at lunch. Two years ago, she became a professor at Ocean County College also teaching Computer Science.

Helga will be sorely missed by her mother, Renate Hermos, her husband of 33 years, John Paggi, her two sons Joseph (Chloé) Paggi and Alexander (Samantha) Paggi, her sister Tanya (Eric) Lahr, her brother Matthew Hermos, and a very long list of brothers- and sisters-in law, nieces and nephews, and countless close friends and colleagues. She is predeceased by her first son Nicholas and her father Alexander, both of whom she loved very much.

Helga and John have lived on the Jersey Shore since getting married in 1990. They spent many days boating on Barnegat Bay and on the beach at Island Beach State Park. There were lots of fun days waterskiing, tubing, clamming, and just messing about in boats. Helga has always been an active individual attending yoga classes at the gym, biking, and walking her dogs Tasha, Skipper, and Bubba.

The pride of Helga’s life was her boys. There was no limit to what she would do to support them. She gave them a beautiful childhood filled with adventure and memories they fondly remember. Her encouragement and support has been a large contributor to their successes. Joseph recently received his PhD from Stanford University in Computer Science and Alexander is a Lieutenant in the U.S. Coast Guard where he is a C-130J pilot performing search and rescue for the entire East Coast. Most importantly, she raised her sons to be kind and caring men.

Helga was always eager to share her talents and knowledge to help others. She was the IT manager for many of her friends walking them through the configuration of their TVs, phones, PCs and laptops. She was a trusted confidant to many providing counselling on family and health issues. She was always ready to tutor young people that needed a little extra push.

A wake will be held for Helga at Anderson & Campbell Funeral Home at 703 Main St., Toms River, NJ on Tuesday, January 16 from 3-5 and 7-9. A Christian Funeral will take place at Saint Joseph’s RC Church on Wednesday, January 17 at 10AM.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Nicholas William Paggi Scholarship Fund. This fund was created by Alex Paggi after the death of his brother Nick and is used to award annual scholarships to college bound students in computer science and physics programs. If interested please send a check addressed to the Nicholas William Scholarship Fund to 30 Brooks Road, Toms River, NJ, 08753.