ALIDA HENRIETTE STRUZE October 04, 1921 – January 09, 2019 Share this obituary Send Flowers Sign Guestbook| Send Private Condolences| Send Sympathy Card Alida Henriette Struze daughter of the late Walter and Elizabeth (nee Ruschke); sister of the late Walter, Jr. (Cecelia); Aunt Alida to her many “kids” and friend to many including those she called “my attorneys”. Passed away January 9, 2019; Memorial Service Sunday February 3, 2019 at 2 p.m. at Lakewood Baptist Church, 14321 Detroit Ave. Lakewood, OH 44107.
Private interment Sunset Memorial Park. Memorials to her Church, Crossroads Hospice, 9775 Rockside Rd. STE 270, Valley View, OH 44125 or Wesleyan Village, 807 West Ave.
Elyria, OH 44035. THE LADY WHO LOVED ATTORNEYS Alida graduated from Lakewood High School in 1939. She worked at the Federal Reserve Bank from January, 1940 to 1946 when she went to the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company.
In 1948 she joined the Lakewood Baptist Church choir and joined the church in 1950. Inspired by teachers at a Lab School at the American Baptist Assembly in Green Lake, Wisconsin, she attended the Baptist Missionary Training School in Chicago for 4 years. There a course in Casework led her to get a Master’s degree in Social Work from SASS at Case Western Reserve University in 1959.
In 1959 she was employed by the Family Service Association of America where she did marriage and personal counseling for 10 years. In 1967 she volunteered to start a pilot Social Service project at the Legal Aid Society where Judge Burt Griffn was then the Director. She did counseling there for 10 years and in 1977 was asked to take over the Referral Service.
Alida developed a great relationship with the attorneys in private practice who took volunteer cases even after Legal Aid could no longer send them fee referrals. She always called them “my attorneys”. An article in the Cleveland Bar Journal entitled “Meet the lady Who Loves Attorneys” couldn’t have described her feelings better.
She was honored with awards from the Cleveland Academy of Trial Attorneys in 1990 and the Cleveland Bar Association’s prestigious Liberty Bell Award in 1999. Alida was the first to try to beautify W. 6th Street by planting 4 geraniums around two trees Legal Aid planted . It wasn’t long after that that every building on the street was renovated and the street is the center of activity in the Warehouse District.
Until the trees took up all the room, she planted flowers around them every year. Her church was important to her. She taught in the church school, was in the choir until in her 80’s, was Church School Superintendent for 12 years, was on the Board of Deacons a number of times and the Board of Christian Education several times.
Wanting to keep things tidy at LBC she started God’s Neatniks and found a few members to help. Alida never married but loved the children of her friends, neighbors and others who came into her life calling them “my kids”. Because she wanted the beauty of Nature left for them and future generations, she did all she could to support many environmental causes.
In 2004 she was inducted into the Lakewood High School Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame because of the years of service helping people. She never got over wondering why she was honored for doing something she loved. She always said her greatest gift was loving people.
In October, 2009 she was honored during PRO BONO Month for her 42 years at Legal Aid. She retired December 31,2009 but volunteered 3 days a week until a replacement was found. She was shocked at all the publicity she got when she retired at age 88.
Her “second retirement” was on April 30, 2010. www. ZMFH.com Zeis-McGreevey Funeral Home and Cremation Service 16105 Detroit Ave.
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