Ursula Eva Goebel

Longtime Resident

And Community Supporter

Ursula Eva Goebel, 84, died November 11. Born in Berlin, Germany, she was a longtime Newtown resident.

Ms Goebel received her BA from Swarthmore College and her master’s in social work from Case-Western Reserve University. She then worked for five years in the Boston area as a social worker, where she met and married Robert Goebel, a German-born physician, who became director of internal medicine at Fairfield Hills Hospital.

They raised two children in Newtown, and lived there until 2005. During this time, she founded Friends from Abroad, a host program for foreign doctors’ families at Fairfield Hills. She was a founding member of the Newtown Food Co-op and a volunteer counselor at the Danbury Women’s Center. She worked as the coordinator of the Young Parents Program at Danbury Hospital.

Ms Goebel remained active with volunteer work after retirement. She started the Newtown Hikers in 1982, which is still going strong. She gave time to Friends of Music for eight years, and Literacy Volunteers for almost two decades. She was an active member of the Unitarian Universalist church in Danbury, served regularly in the soup kitchen, and worked for the greater Danbury chapter of the NAACP. She volunteered on countless local, state, and national Democratic campaigns.

She is survived by her two children, Ann and Peter, and their spouses; and three granddaughters, who she loved very much.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, November 29, at 4 pm, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 24 Clapboard Ridge Road, Danbury.

In lieu of flowers, Ms Goebel requested that donations be made in her memory to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Avenue, Montgomery AL 36104, or the American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia PA 19102.

The Newtown Bee      November 28, 2008