Teacher s career spanned 40 years

FINDLAY N. Erma Shrider, a retired mathematics teacher, died Dec. 26 at Birchaven Retirement Village. She was 97.

The family did not know the cause of death.

Mrs. Shrider, who started teaching in 1932 in Rawson, Ohio, retired in 1972 from Glenwood, Ohio, Junior High School after teaching math there from the late 1950s.

Before teaching at Glenwood Junior High, she taught math at Bloomdale, Ohio, High School for several years.

She was a wonderful teacher, her daughter Phyllis Beil said.

Students held her in high regard. Just this year, she received Christmas cards from [several of] her students whom she taught in the 1960s and the 1970s, she said.

A native of Hancock County, Mrs. Shrider, whose maiden name was Bisel, was raised on a family farm. She graduated from high school in 1925 at age 16. She was her class valedictorian in Tecumseh, Mich.

She graduated magna cum laude from Findlay College in 1930 with a bachelor s degree in education.

She married Merle E. Shrider in 1933. He died in 1978.

In retirement, Mrs. Shrider enjoyed knitting, sewing, crocheting, and gardening.

She was a longtime member of First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Findlay.

Her other local memberships included the Eastern Star; AARP; Ladies Shrine; the Hancock County Retired Teachers Association, and the Ohio Retired Teachers Association.

Surviving are her son, Lawrence Shrider; daughters, Patricia Pachlhofer and Phyllis Beil; sister, Margaret Arras; six grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

Services will be at 10 a.m. today at First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Findlay. Arrangements are by the Kirkpatrick-Behnke Funeral Home, Findlay.

The family suggests tributes to the hymnal fund at First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Findlay, or the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation northwest Ohio affiliate, Toledo.