Louise Lampman, 1922-2011: Teacher at Toledo Day used music, art in class
12/16/2011Louise Lampman, a retired teacher at Toledo Day Nursery who applied her background in psychology and interest in art, music, and nature to a career spent working with children, died Sunday in Hospice of Northwest Ohio, South Detroit Avenue, from complications of bladder cancer. She was 89.
She retired in the late 1970s from the Toledo Day Nursery after about 20 years.
She enjoyed learning and took classes at the University of Toledo and Lourdes University until late in life. In her work, she made the most of learning for the youngsters in her care by sharing her talents and training.
She was artistic and used pastels, pencils, and linoleum cuts in her artwork. Her taste in music ranged from classical to folk.
"She played a lot of recordings that would have been uplifting or interesting for kids to listen to," said Eileen Condon, a former professor of Catholic thought at the University of Toledo and part of a tight-knit group of friends Miss Lampman developed over the last dozen years.
Miss Lampman of West Toledo also was a gardener who knew plants and insects.
"She had a great sense of a little kid discovering this for the first time," Ms. Condon said.
At Toledo Day Nursery, Miss Lampman taught at various levels and became something of a leader, said Roberta Jaskolski, a friend.
She didn't say much about her work. By chance, though, a nurse at hospice remarked that her mother had been a colleague and was helped by Miss Lampman, Ms. Jaskolski said. The nurse also said Miss Lampman was noted for being ahead of her time in how she used psychology in childcare, Ms. Jaskolski said.
She was born Jan. 16, 1922, to Anna and Rudolph Lampman in Berea, Ohio, and was a graduate of Berea High School. She received a bachelor's degree in 1943 from Baldwin-Wallace College, where she studied psychology, but also anthropology and history.
She worked at Children's Hospital in Detroit and a suburban orphanage; a nursery school in the Cleveland area and the Cleveland Day Nursery.
She received training at the Merrill-Palmer School in Detroit, known for its research in child development, and took graduate courses in theoretical and clinical psychology at what is now Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
"Not too many people would continue to pursue an education, almost as a child psychologist," Ms. Condon said.
She moved to Port Charlotte, Fla., in retirement to care for her mother and her sister, Betty Chapman, but she returned to Toledo in 1990 after they died.
Afterward, she took classes, not for credit, in European history, German literature, Bible studies, religion, and spirituality.
She met her network of friends through a class she took of Ms. Condon's.
"We developed a kind of breakfast club out of that period, and we became each other's dearest friends," Ms. Condon said.
The group took care of each other; most recently, the friends helped with Miss Lampman's care.
"She was always interested in making friends in a deeper way, and that's what finally happened for her later in life," Miss Condon said. "She was a rather shy person waiting to be invited to share some of her gifts, and I think she waited a long time for a group of friends she could rely on and do a lot of fun things with."
Surviving is her brother, Harold Lampman.
Visitation will be from 1-5 p.m. Sunday at Coyle Funeral Home. Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday in Reformation Lutheran Church, where visitation will begin at 10 a.m. Tributes are suggested to Reformation Lutheran Church, where she was a member, or Hospice of Northwest Ohio.
Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.