Helga M. Gleisser

Helga M. Gleisser was a long-time social worker in Greater Cleveland on both ends of the age spectrum. The former Helga Rothschild, she began her career in 1954 soon after graduating from Ohio University that year with a degree in social work. She was a placement worker with the Cuyahoga County Child Welfare division where her duties included placing young children in foster homes and monitoring their activities.

She stepped out of her career for a few years after her marriage to Marcus Gleisser in 1955 to rear their four children.

When the children were old enough to take care of themselves, Mrs. Gleisser resumed her career in 1977 but this time as a social worker for 30 years with the elderly at Schnurmann House, a retirement apartment complex for the well elderly in Mayfield Heights.

Here she participated in outreach services, bringing meals to the home-bound and bringing others into the social activities at Schnurmann House, as well as serving on the admittance committee and handling field trips and social programs.

She had a wide reputation for her ability to solve many welfare, financial, medical and social problems for the elderly in her care while maintaining a friendly uplifting personality that tended to ease many.

Born in 1932 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and brought to Cleveland in 1939 as a child by her parents when they fled the persecution of the Nazi Holocaust, she grew up in Cleveland Heights and was educated in the Cleveland Heights school system and Ohio University.

While a student at Ohio University, her friendly and outgoing personality won her the presidency of her college sorority, Alpha Epsilon Phi.

In her work in the Schnurmann retirement community her sunny and optimistic disposition was especially valuable in winning the confidence and friendship of the elderly who often had withdrawn into themselves, alone and lonely after the death of a spouse.

She was widely known for bringing comfort and smiles to many who once felt they were neglected and alone. She served on a focus group project of President Clinton for the 1995 White House Conference on Aging and also volunteered at Temple Emanu El to comfort grieving spouses.

Mrs. Gleisser's philosophy, fostered by her early employers, the late Julius and Helen Weil, who were widely known for their pioneering innovations in the treatment of the elderly, was that everyone should continue to lead an active life no matter what their age and that leading a lonely and inactive life would bring "an early rusting away of personality."

In her leisure time, Mrs. Gleisser was a dedicated backyard gardener, recognized in the neighborhood for having a talented "green thumb" that could bring new life to fading plants and grow new plants in areas where they had rarely survived before.

While living in Euclid for more than 40 years, her backyard every year was a field of brilliant floral colors, the result of constant care and a source of great pride to her. Not only did she grow a wide variety of brightly hued flowers, but she used them extensively to make colorful center pieces and flower arrangements for the parties of many friends as well as numerous events at Schnurmann House.

Another hobby was world-wide travel with her husband, Marcus, retired Plain Dealer business/financial writer and real estate editor, which took them to all parts of western Europe, Greece, Israel, many Caribbean islands, the Rocky Mountain western states and Canada as well as exploration of Ohio's back roads and towns.

She was survived by a son, Brian Gleisser (Pam Gleisser) of Shaker Heights, three daughters, Julia Gleisser Wainblat (Neal Wainblat) of Chagrin Falls, Hannah Gleisser Sharnsky (Mark Sharnsky) of Akron, and Ellyn Gleisser Klein (Larry Klein) of Solon; nine grandchildren, Faye Gleisser (Sammy Joe Osborne), Jacqueline Ozga (Rob), Robert Gleisser (Missy), Benjamin Wainblat (Malesa Price), Ethan Wainblat, Jonathan Wainblat, Seth Klein, Ethan Klein, and Jeremy Klein; and five great-grandchildren, Madeline, Emily, William, AJ, and Arlo and a brother, Gerald Rothschild.

Graveside services were held on Sunday, September 11, 2022 at Mt. Olive Cemetery. Friends who wish may contribute to the Schnurmann House, 1223 Drury Ct., Mayfield Heights, OH. 44124.