Mary Welham Wurmstedt, Philadelphia teacher, New York banker, and Montco funeral director, has died at 91
She was the former owner of Helweg & Rowland Funeral Home in Jenkintown and “loved engaging with people,” her daughter said.
Mary Welham Wurmstedt, 91, formerly of Jenkintown, former elementary school teacher for the School District of Philadelphia, onetime financial analyst for Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, former owner of Helweg & Rowland Funeral Home in Jenkintown and Abington, and longtime volunteer, died Tuesday, March 4, of cardiac arrest at her home in Dallas.
Born in Philadelphia and a graduate of Philadelphia High School For Girls, Mrs. Wurmstedt taught second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade students at Clara Barton Elementary School in the 1950s. Her mother was a teacher, too, and Mrs. Wurmstedt later tutored her daughter and son in preschool math and reading in a homemade classroom in their basement.
She was affable, energetic, and good with children. She was good at math, too, and interested in business and the stock market. So she went to the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania at night and, thanks to a timely tip from the dean at Wharton, landed a job as a financial analyst at Chase Manhattan Bank.
In New York, she worked in a high-rise for six years, became an expert investor, and met David Rockefeller, who was then chairman and chief executive officer at Chase. She got interested in politics, worked on Richard Nixon’s unsuccessful 1960 presidential campaign, and returned often to her favorite Manhattan shops and spas.
“She had the kind of graceful attention to the details of life, the elegant sense and sensibility that we cannot afford to lose,” a friend said in a tribute. “She was responsible, adaptable, and original in everything she did.”
She met Joseph Helweg Jr. through his sister when he agreed to be the fill-in fourth player in a game of bridge, and they married in 1964. They moved to Jenkintown, where he owned Helweg’s Funeral Service on Old York Road, and had a daughter, Diana, and a son, Joe.
Her husband died in 1985. So Mrs. Wurmstedt assumed ownership of Helweg Funeral Service, bought out her biggest competitor 20 years later, and found fulfillment, she told her family, in helping other families cope with grief and loss. “She loved engaging with people,” her daughter said.
She was innovative and empathetic, and even drove from Jenkintown to Philadelphia to deliver obituaries to The Inquirer and Daily News just in time for publication. “It’s a people-oriented business, and she was good at helping support people,” her daughter said. “She always said funerals are for the living. She found her calling.”
She married George Campbell, and they divorced later. She married Charles Wurmstedt in 2010. He died in 2018. Her second husband also died earlier.
Mrs. Wurmstedt doted on her children and grandchildren. She traveled the world with her husbands and moved to Florida and then Texas.
She sold the funeral home in 2021. “Would that I had a tenth of Bonnie’s drive and fearlessness,” a friend said.
Away from work, she was a record-setting fundraiser for the Women’s Board of Abington Memorial Hospital and active at Huntingdon Valley Country Club, St. John’s Episcopal Church, the Junior League of Philadelphia, Rotary Club of Jenkintown, and other groups.
“She was a tireless teacher, cheerleader, and source of encouragement,” her family said in a tribute. Her son, Joe, said: “Bonnie did it all, and she did it with verve.”
Mary Welham Walbridge was born May 10, 1933, in Philadelphia. Her father died when she was 2, and she grew up in Philadelphia and Jenkintown.
Her grandfather called her “my wee bonnie lassie” when she was young, so everyone else called her Bonnie for the rest of her life. She went to summer camp with Grace Kelly and spent her freshman year of high school in Hawaii.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at Bucknell University in 1955 and joined Phi Mu sorority. She liked to walk, bike, and play golf. She went to the Academy of Music regularly and spent memorable summers with family and friends in Avalon and Vero Beach, Fla.
She read newspapers and magazines, and kept up on current affairs and the stock market. She gave her children silly nicknames and hosted young exchange students from around the world. Two of her favorite sayings were: “What is hardest in the beginning is easiest in the end” and “Every back has a front.”
Her son said: “Bonnie was someone you always wanted to have in your corner.”
Her daughter said: “Her light has gone out, but her impact remains in and among all of us. … Take a bow.”
In addition to her children, Mrs. Wurmstedt is survived by seven grandchildren, a brother, and other relatives. A sister died earlier.
Services were held March 29.
Donations in her name may be made to the Abington Health Foundation, 1200 Old York Rd., Abington, Pa. 19001.