Freda M. (Rustemeyer) De Pillis

AMHERST, Freda Mae (Rustemeyer) De Pillis passed away on Feb. 23, 2013. She was able to live at home until May 26, 2012.

Freda was the third of the four daughters of Julia (Bogler) Rustemeyer and Ferdinand (“Fred”) Rustemeyer. She was born on the family farm on Pointers Creek in Linn, Osage County, Missouri on Aug. 27, 1924.

She attended a one-room schoolhouse on Pointers Creek.  After graduating from Linn High School in 1942 Freda moved to St. Louis where she worked in various jobs until the spring of 1947, when she signed a two-year contract to work for the U. S. occupation forces in Tokyo, Japan, processing payroll.

Always a voracious reader and keen of mind, her experience in Japan deepened her desire for education.  She decided to apply to the College of the University of Chicago and was admitted in 1949. She met her husband there, whom she married in 1952.

Freda graduated with a BA from the College and an MA in psychiatric social work. She had a varied career in hospitals, psychiatric institutions, and family counseling agencies in Chicago, Philadelphia, New Haven, and Northampton. She spent most of her career at the Northampton agency, Children’s Aid and Family Service. She specialized in marital counseling, and adoption. After retirement she was volunteered for Not Bread Alone (a community meal program), Tapestry (a community-based non-profit family planning and reproductive health services provider), and taught English to immigrants and visiting academic spouses. She also served in Amherst Town Meeting.

Freda was a feminist, beginning in the 1940s when she was denied training in animal husbandry in rural Missouri because she was a girl. She was less interested in feminist ideology than concrete equal rights. She cheered when she saw the first woman linesman climbing a telephone pole.  She opposed America’s role in the war in Vietnam, joining the weekly peace vigil on the Town Common in Amherst.

Freda kept a journal from age eleven until no longer able.  These she transcribed and they are now part of the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.  

Freda is survived by her husband of 61 years, Mario S. De Pillis Sr., and their sons, Vincent B. De Pillis (wife Kristin Bedell) of Seattle, with granddaughters Lydia and Sophia; Mario S. De Pillis Jr. (wife Anne H. Walton) of Amherst with grandsons Alexander A. (“Rex”) De Pillis and Rafael; and Alexander F. De Pillis (fiancée Debra Pinsof) of Montpelier Vermont; and her older sister Dorothy of St. Louis, Missouri. Her sisters Marcella and Mary Ellen predeceased her.

The family thanks the caregivers whose compassion and care provided her the best possible quality of life during her last years.

A memorial service will be held Douglass Funeral Service in Amherst on Sunday March 10 at 2 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family encourages donations to the Amherst Senior Center, 70 Boltwood Walk, Amherst, MA 01002. Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com.  

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.