Virginia Nicholson, teacher and volunteer
In 2000, the Philadelphia Green Program of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society honored Virginia Ruemeli Nicholson with a certificate for her volunteer work.
In 2000, the Philadelphia Green Program of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society honored Virginia Ruemeli Nicholson with a certificate for her volunteer work.
On Saturday, the society planted a dogwood tree in her memory in its azalea garden at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she had been a gardener for 30 years.
On Tuesday, Oct. 11, Mrs. Nicholson, 70, of the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia, died of breast cancer at home.
"She saw line and form and color in almost everything," said Joan Bedell, who had known her since the mid-1990s. "She was a faithful friend."
Mrs. Nicholson grew up in Mount Airy, and, after her family moved, in Wenonah. She graduated from Woodbury High School in 1963.
After earning a bachelor's degree in printmaking in 1967 at what is now the University of the Arts, she received a master's in art education at what is now Rowan University.
Mrs. Nicholson was a member of the education committee at the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill from the late 1990s to about 2011, said her husband, Joseph, a former board president there.
She began her teaching career at middle and high schools in Deptford and Mullica Hill in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Mrs. Nicholson then became a teacher in Get Set programs for elementary school-age children in Strawberry Mansion and Center City in the 1970s, before teaching preschoolers at the Greene Towne Montessori School in the 2100 block of Arch Street in the 1980s.
A guide at the Philadelphia Waterworks in the early 1990s, she was also a volunteer for the print and picture collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia in the 1980s.
A member of the vestry at St. Clement's Episcopal Church in Center City in the early 1990s, she had been a poll watcher in Fairmount since the 1980s.
Besides her husband, Mrs. Nicholson is survived by daughter Hillary and a brother.
A Funeral Mass was set for 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, at St. Clement's Church, 20th and Appletree Streets, followed by a reception in the church hall. Interment is to be private.
Donations may be sent for care of the azalea garden to www.pennhort.net.
Condolences may be offered to the family at dinanfuneralhome.com.
610-313-8134@WNaedele