Hilde Rojec

Hildegarde was born to Sylvia and Frederick Luedtke April 21, 1932 in Loma Linda, California. She grew up in Berkeley, California with her older brother Fred. Her mother divorced and was remarried and Hilde was adopted by her stepfather John(Ed)Hare. Ed and Sylvia had two more children, Hilde's sister and brother Tina and Jim(MSJ) She graduated from Berkeley High School in 1949. She attended one year of college then stayed home to care for her younger siblings. She moved to Fairbanks, Alaska and got married. She had two children, Vicki and Mark. The marriage didn't work and ended in divorce. Hilde went to work as a proofreader for the Fairbanks Alaska Newsminer(affectionately known to all as the newsless miner) to keep body and soul and two kids together. She subsequently advanced to become a headline writer, and then a general reporter. court reporter and finally a society editor(which she hated).She met Hal Rojec and they married on April 1, 1960. Hal adopted Vicki and Mark, and then Sherri was added to the family. What followed over the next ten years was a series of moves to wherever Hal's job took them. Fairbanks, Alaska, to Portland, Oregon to Anchorage, Alaska to Los Angeles, California to Barstow, California back to Los Angeles and finally to Aurora. Throughout all the moving ordeals she managed to create a stable home, rather than chaos, for all and at each location established new lifelong friends. Hilde managed to use the time in Barstow to earn her two year college degree and do a little substitute teaching. After the final move to Colorado and with all the kids in school, she decided she needed a new career, so she trained and became a dental assistant. Because of her natural people skills she was lured away to be an orthodontics receptionist and assistant. She guided Hal into travel after having enough of dentistry but then the work bug hit her again and she decided to become a bookkeeper. A couple of years of college classes and some computer work had her up and running in the bookkeeping business from which she retired. She and Hal continued to travel worldwide. Never one to let the grass grow under her feet, she decided that volunteer work was in order. She helped with a school reading assistance program for a couple of years, then she decided there was a real need in the area for battered women and volunteered at the Gateway Battered Women's Shelter. Hilde's family grew as each child married and started having children of their own. She was the quintessential Grammy; loving and spoiling each new baby, supporting her children in every way possible. The grandchildren are Emma, Joe and Jeffy Rumpeltes, Vicki and Alan's children; Brett, Stewart and Molly Rojec, Mark and Patty's children; and Sam, Eric and Luke Suminski, Sherri and Greg's children. She died Friday, August 12, 2005. Hilde loved life, had a great sense of humor and will live in the memories of her family and friends forever.