Isabel Peard, formerly of 214 Forest Home Drive, died Sunday, April 11, 2004, at Oak Hill Manor.  Isabel was almost 94 years old when she died and her life was full of meaning.  She was an only child and from the first day of school knew that she wanted to be a teacher and so she was.  When she came back home after the first day of school, she asked her mother and father to sit down and she started teaching them.  Isabel was a master teacher.  Over the years she taught thousands of students and had an impact on many.  Some of them remained close friends until she died.

Isabel loved Forest Home and was an active member of the community.  Many of her friends and neighbors miss her greatly.  Almost until her last day she was the newsletter delivery person in her area.  Isabel had a strong will and cherished her freedom.  She continued driving her small old Honda that had scars all over.

The last few month of Isabel's life were not easy.  She was not able to stay in her home by herself and moved to LakeSide Nursing Home, then to Altera and finally was moved to Oak Hill where she breathed her last.

Isbael's gentle and beautiful voice filled her home with song every day.  One day when I came to pick up her dog for a walk, I heard her voice and tiptoed to the living room.  This started a long-term meaningful relationship between us.  Isabel taught me to sing, and for several years we went together to various nursing homes around the area where Isabel played the piano and we were singing together to the old residents.

Isabel loved poetry and belonged to a local poetry club.  There was one poem that Isabel taught me (and did not remember the source)[but it is likely John Laird].  Isabel loved this poem and used to recite it to me often (even after losing her memory).

     "Let trees be made for earth is bare"
     The Lord’s voice cried in thunder
     And the roots ran deep and the trees were there
     And earth was filled with wonder.

     The white birch gleamed; the oak held straight
     And down the mountain marched the pine
     The orchard bowed 'neath blossomed weight
     And cypress stood in solemn line.

     The palm stood proud as Aaron’s rod
     The willow billowed slowly
     So came the trees at the call of God
     And all the trees are holy.

Across the street from Isbael's old house on 214 FH Drive there is a small park that our community uses for occasional gatherings.  Some neighbors suggested to name it informally as Isabel's Park.

Carl Sundell

Our dear neighbor Carl Sundell passed away on December 2, 2006 at the age of 89. A memorial service was held on December 7th at the Forest Home Chapel. Carl had lived in Forest Home since he was a boy, helping his father to build their home at 310 Forest Home Drive from a Sears mail-order design and materials. Years ago Carl put a TV antenna on an old windmill tower on Halcyon Hill, then ran wires from it down to his shop, and from there to many parts of the Forest Home community, in what was perhaps the first cable TV service in Tompkins County. More recently, Carl served as chair of the FHIA Oral History Committee, and organized and collected many oral histories of old and former Forest Home residents. He also revised and printed the Forest Home Directory for a number of years, under the name of "Potterbit Press." He was instrumental in initiating the New York State Scenic Road designation process for Forest Home Drive. Carl was a genuine FH-er, and a colorful character.

Lib Delahanty

Our dear neighbor Elizabeth (Lib) Delahanty passed away in March 2007. A memorial service celebrating her life was held on July 21 at the First Unitarian Church of Ithaca.

Margery Shipe

Margery M. Shipe, our friend and neighbor for nearly sixty years, passed away August 31, 2007 at the age of 86. She kept a garden in front of her house on Forest Home Drive that cheered the community and she was always ready to welcome a neighbor into her kitchen for coffee and baked goods. Her presence will be much missed. A service of remembrance was held on September 3 at St. Paul's United Methodist Church.

Frank Shipe

Frank Shipe, long term Forest Home resident and treasured neighbor and friend, died on May 20, 2008, at the age of 88. A Professor Emeritus of Food Science Department at Cornell, Frank lived on Forest Home Drive for 60 years and raised his family here. He was an active member of the community. Neighbor Bruce Brittain described him as the "informal guardian of the Upstream Bridge." Many have admired the beautiful pocket of garden that he and his wife Margery, who died last year, maintained on the corner just before the bridge. A memorial service was held at St. Paul's United Methodist Church on May 31st.

John Swan

Our long-time neighbor John Swan passed away on October 12, 2008 at the age of 90. John lived on Crest Lane with his wife Mary for many years. A Cornell graduate, he worked for the Cooperative Extension Service for over thirty years. He was an enthusiastic and skilled outdoorsman, enjoying hunting, fishing, camping, skiing, golf, and gardening. He was an active member of the community and the Forest Home Chapel. Friends and family shared stories and memories during a memorial service at Forest Home Chapel on November 15th.

Clara Goodman

Long-time Forest Home neighbor Clara Goodman passed away on January 25, 2009 at the age of 91. A memorial service was held at the Andrew Dickson White house on July 18. In recognition of Clara Goodman's service to the community as a Supervising Public Health Nurse for over forty years and the organizer of Tompkins County's Certified Home Health Agency, a conference room at the Tompkins County Health Department (55 Brown Road) was dedicated in Ms. Goodman's name on May 8.

A January 27th article on Clara Goodman in the Ithaca Journal describes Ms. Goodman's special contributions to the community, excerpted here:

Clara Goodman, the mother of Tompkins County's long-standing public Home Health Care program and a strong supporter of Meals on Wheels, passed away over the weekend.

Goodman, 91, still lived in Ithaca at the time of her passing, and though she retired in the early 1980s, she continued to lend friends and former colleagues encouragement.

"She never gave up going into homes to help and support families," said Liz Emerson Rude, a former colleague. "She loved people and wanted them as well and as happy as can be, I think."

The groundwork Goodman laid in Ithaca came full circle for her, allowing her to live her final days at home and to take advantage of Meals on Wheels, her niece Margaret Corvini said...

Goodman's career as the public health nurse with the county Health Department spanned 41 years, and during that time she was responsible for getting elderly and disabled medical services into people's homes. The program served about 600 county residents in 2007, Health Department Director Alice Cole said...

"I came to town in 1962 and to me, the face of outpatient care in Tompkins County was basically the face of Clara Goodman," said Judd Kilgore, a doctor who used to work with Goodman. "In my contact with her around the hospital and at county society meetings ... she was always a very pleasant, intelligent, hard working lady who never seemed to lose her cool and always seemed to know the next thing to do in order to get done what needed to be done," Kilgore said.

She was a "really caring and compassionate person who was able to see a need and in her kind of own but quiet and determined way to bring community resources together in a way that would meet those needs," Steve Griffin, executive director of Foodnet, said.

Jean Bush Doggett and Fred Doggett

Jean Bush Doggett, who grew up at 136 Forest Home Drive, passed away on October 11, 2007 after a ten-year battle with cancer. Jean was the daughter of Gracie Bush, who lived in Forest Home for many years. On June 24, 2009, her husband Fred Doggett passed away after a short illness. The date was special to him as that was Jean's birthday. He had expressed a few days before he died that he missed her terribly and wanted to be with her. They had met during WWII when he was sent to Cornell for training by the Navy. They were married for 64 years and had four children. They retired to Florida because they couldn't take the cold, but Forest Home was always home and Florida was where they just happened to be staying. They were brought home one last time by the family and laid to rest in Pleasant Grove Cemetery.

Ginny Langhans  ~  Edward Gobrecht

In late summer 2011, Forest Home lost two close neighbors: Virginia Langhans, 82, and Edward Gobrecht, 87, of 101 and 111 Halcyon Hill, respectively. Long-standing and much loved members of the community, they will be missed by all who knew them.

Ginny lived an active life even while battling ovarian cancer for the past nine years, until Tuesday, August 30th, when she died at home surrounded by her family - husband Bob and children Stephen, Elizabeth, and Robert. She will be remembered for her cheerful spirit and positive attitude toward life. The Langhams moved to their home at 111 Halcyon Hill in 1979 after having lived in Collegetown. In recent years, Ginny and Bob enjoyed winters in Fort Meyers, Florida, returning in the spring to their home on Halcyon Hill. Ginny was active for years in the Forest Home Embroidery Club, Ag Club, and Cornell Campus Club. Her community involvement was also felt in her thirteen years of service as a member of the Ithaca Planning Board. Many wonderful social gatherings were hosted by Ginny for the immediate neighbors, who she made a point of getting to know. We'll all remember the times we shared and cherish them.

Edward Gobrecht had lived at 101 Halcyon Hill from 1963 until three years ago, when he moved to Horizon Drive in Lansing. he and his wife Dorothy, who passed away in 1986, raised their three children, John, Colleen and Jed, in Forest Home at Halcyon Hill. While a resident of Forest Home, Ed was Professor Emeritus of Music at Ithaca College and, during the summers, director of the town band of Hanover, PA, his hometown. He touched the lives of many through music, as a bassoonist, bassoon teacher, and band director. he attended the Curtis Institute of Music and played under the baton of many of our country's finest conductors, including Sergiu Commissiona. He once mentioned that he had good rhythem because in his younger days he had played drums in a jazz band on the weekends. He was one of the last students of the noted bassoon teacher Sol Schoenbach and the oboist Marcel Tabuteau. he was full of anecdotes and stories and possessed a laugh that could be heard across the neighborhood. He passed away at Hospicare of Ithaca on September 1 after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.

Bothy Ginny and Edward were wonderfully friendly and gregarious neighbors, who always brightened the day of any neighbor with whom they stopped to chat. They helped makes Forest Home the special kind of community we enjoy today.