This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: WHL44 Surnames: SHULTZ, GRUNWALD Classification: obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.michigan.counties.kalamazoo/22389/mb.ashx Message Board Post: SHULTZ, Heidi Marianne Age 70 Of Portage Passed away after a long illness on February 23, 2008, at the Rose Arbor Hospice Residence in Kalamazoo. She was an accomplished social researcher and energetic participant in family and community activities. She was known for her fun-loving, courageous, generous, and adventurous spirit. Those who knew Heidi admired and were inspired by her qualities of determination, hard work, frugality, and loyalty to friends and family. She will be much missed by her husband, other devoted family members and many friends who loved her. She was born on January 30, 1938, in Likusen, Allenstein, East Prussia, Germany (an area now part of Poland), to Hyronimus and Cacilie Grunwald. She and her family suffered the ravages of World War II on a very personal level. Her father was drafted into the army and was lost on the battlefield. As the Russian army advanced into East Prussia, Heidi's mother, facing great hardships and danger, managed to bring her children and a niece to the relative safety! of the Hamburg region of West Germany, and then to the United States in 1950. Heidi was a highly effective interviewer in the field of social research and was especially gifted in her ability to communicate with people of all walks of life. She made others feel comfortable with her as their personal confidante. Research agencies sought her out to conduct difficult and sensitive interviews. She was particularly talented in obtaining interviews which other researchers had repeatedly failed to obtain. Her work involved meeting hundreds of people and traveling thousands of miles, and she was responsible for the successful completion of numerous important federally-funded studies. Additionally, Heidi was a member of the National Ski Patrol for eight years, played tennis in national tournaments, and enjoyed many hobbies, including woodworking, with building doll houses and furniture her specialty. She was also an expert at home improvement projects, and the beauty of her home re! flected her great skills. Heidi graduated from Edsel Ford High School in Dearborn and received her B.A. and M.A. in literature from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. There, she met Garth Shultz, and after his graduation from the University of Michigan Medical School, they were married on June 1, 1963, in Greenfield Village. They lived in Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids during Dr. Shultz's internship and residency in Internal Medicine, and then set up their permanent residence in Portage. Dr. Shultz practiced Internal Medicine in the Kalamazoo area for 40 years and recently retired. The Shultz family includes four children and six grandchildren. Heidi took special joy in travel and loved creating active experiences for her family. As a college student, she traveled through Europe, revisiting places she had known in Germany, as well as other locales. She and her family went skiing in the Rockies and California, rambling across Europe with the children in a Volkswagen bus, and camping with the Boy Scouts for weeks at a time. With her husband an! d friends, she visited Greece, the Baltic region, the Bahamas, Canada, Thailand, and India. In the 1990s, she and her sisters traveled to the former East Prussia to revisit their childhood home. She always maintained an international outlook and was a strong advocate for peace. Published in the Kalamazoo Gazette on 2/24/2008. (Posted by a VOLUNTEER-NO family connection) Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.