Gretchen Reiche Terhune, of Falmouth, Maine, died Wednesday, April 24 of a stroke at Maine Medical Center. She was 85.
Gretchen Terhune, 85, passed away April 24. Her funeral will be on May 11.
Born April 11, 1934 at the then Maine General Hospital in Portland, she was the daughter of Laura Christine Knudsen Reiche and Howard C. Reiche, who was for many years the Principal of Portland High School.
Educated at Portland High School, she was a fiercely proud scholarship graduate in 1956 of Pembroke College in Brown University.
She will be remembered as a warm, kind and loving person. Following her family tradition, her first instinct always was to help, lift up, encourage and give heart to anyone in need, and to use every resource available in the community to do it. For many years she and her family have provided a scholarship to a graduating senior at Portland High School.
— an obituary from Jones, Rich & Barnes Funeral Home; condolence messages may be left on the funeral home website
Her joy in holding babies, welcoming family and friends into her home and to the “camp” at Sebago Lake warmed the hearts of all those around her. She loved all animals. While feeding a scrawny squirrel outside her kitchen window, she named it “Susanna” and created a lengthy story line about “her,” worrying that pushy male squirrels weren’t letting her get enough to eat.
She and her family lived for 44 years in Darien. From 1983 to 1994, she was the executive director of the Darien United Way and Community Council. There, her greatest pleasure was to work closely with the many social service agencies in Fairfield County which were funded by her organization.
Always active in more than a dozen volunteer activities over the years, she had been a district chair of the Darien Representative Town Meeting, the director of volunteers at Darien High School, and a director of the Fairfield County Pembroke College Club.
She was the beloved wife of over 60 years of Richard P. Terhune, and the mother of Richard P. Terhune Jr., Peter Reiche Terhune, and Charles Robert Terhune, all of whom survive her.
In addition, she is survived by her older brother, Howard C. Reiche Jr.; Richard Jr.’s wife, Linda, and children: Richard P. Terhune III, Sarah Ann Terhune, and James Emory Squiers Terhune; Peter’s wife, Hilary Dianne Forster Terhune, and children: Benjamin Alexander Reiche Terhune and Penelope Daisy Terhune; and Charles’ wife, Alice M. Riccardi, and daughter, Sophia Laura Terhune; as well as many other close and loving relatives.
A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, May 11 at the Foreside Community Church, 340 Foreside Road, Falmouth, Maine. Interment will be private, at a later date in Evergreen Cemetery in Portland.