HELEN WALKER
1915 - 1970
Helen Walker, an instructor in Russian at Vassar from 1966 until
her death in 1970, died on November 4th that year in Troy, New
York after a long illness at the age of 55. Prior to 1966 after
coming to this country from China, Mrs. Walker had served as a
mainstay assistant in the Russian Department from 1946 to 1949
and as director of an eminently successful evening Russian pro-
gram for teachers from 1962 to 1966.
Born in Manchuli, Manchuria on June 10, 1915, the daughter of
the late Mr. and Mrs. Alexander P. Bugaer, Helen Walker came
to this country in 1946. Although she had forfeited all trace
of her previous academic records in China, Mrs. Walker enrolled
for the Vassar undergraduate degree, which she received in 1950,
followed by the second degree which she took with distinction in
1964. She thereafter enrolled for the Ph.D. in Slavic Studies
at New York University. While still in China from 1942 to 1945,
Mrs. Walker had served as an editor and translator for Havas
Telemondial, the French News Agency in Shanghai. She was an
instructor from time to time in the adult education program of
the Poughkeepsie Schools, and was an instructor of Russian at
Dutchess Community College between 1959 and 1962. During the
summer of 1965 Mrs. Walker returned abroad to study at Moscow
State University.
The success of the Institute for teachers of Russian held on
campus for the four years mentioned in the 1960's has been
attested to by the rise and popularity of Russian studies in
Dutchess County schools. The
inauguration of the program in
the Arlington High School, for example, is directly attributable
to one of her students. Many
students, subsequent to their
fanned out in to high schools
in other states. They found,
courses in other institutions
of Mrs. Walker's other teacher
study in the Vassar institute
in surrounding areas, as well as
also, that when they enrolled in
to pursue further work, Mrs. Walker
had given them a rigorous, strong, and rich preparation in a dif-
ficult and demanding discipline.
Although her central concern was with her students in the class-
room, Mrs. Walker constantly opened her expansive Russian heart
to those who needed her personal help. In most recent years,
under the burden of her increasingly debilitating illness, she
HELEN WALKER - continued
shared the warm cordiality of her lovely modern house in the
woods near Vassar with her colleagues on the faculty and her
students.
The memorable gourmet delicacies that she created and served
introduced those who visited her to Russian food; while the
talk and fellowship simultaneously revealed other glimpses of
her previous life in a different culture.
Soon after Mrs. Walker came to Vassar it was discovered that
she had an incurable congenital kidney ailment which threatened
her life. Notwithstanding, she courageously accepted her con-
dition, and acted to give and gain full measure from her daily
professorial commitments.
One of her colleagues has summed up her qualities as a constant
thirsting for intellectual activities. "She was a most con-
scientious, unselfish, and talented pedagogue, considerate and
very thorough and kind." In her quiet and modest way she sus-
tained the highest standards of language teaching and criticism
Respectfully submitted,
Richard Gregg
Charles Griffin
Elizabeth Daniels, Chairman