Ethel Kurtz

Ethel Marie (Tarvestad) Kurtz, age 98, died Friday evening, November 3, at Oakwood Village West in Madison, Wis. She was born in Lansford, North Dakota , on March 9, 1908, the daughter of Mary and Louis Tarvestad. She was educated in a one-room school near the family farm, attended secondary school in Lanesboro, Minn., and graduated from Minot High School, Minot, N. D. She received her bachelor’s degree in 1929 from Jamestown College (N. D.) where she met her future husband, Lowell Myers “Pat” Kurtz. In 1931 they were married in Schenectady, N. Y., where he worked as an electrical engineer at the General Electric Company. Their four children were born in Schenectady. Mrs. Kurtz was trained as a science teacher, specializing in chemistry, and taught in Bottineau, N. D.; Schenectady; Erie, Pa. and Jefferson County, Ky. She was an active member of the American Association of University Women. At the time of her death she was a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Madison. Throughout her life, Ethel enjoyed family and friends, poetry, travel, reading, cooking and classical music. She and her husband traveled to Norway, where they visited her relatives, and to many other places in Europe, North and South America, Australia and the South Pacific. She is survived by her four children; Mary (Peter) Monkmeyer of Madison; Judith Litt of Portland, Ore.; Sonia (Robert) Jones of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Fla. and William (Sandra) Kurtz of Chattanooga, Tenn.; nine grandchildren and fifteen great-grandchildren. Her husband preceded her in death in 1989. A family memorial service will be held at a later date.