Edith Geiger Obituary

LANCASTER, N.Y. — Edith Geiger, a longtime educator who was honored as an exemplary teacher of the disadvantaged, by Columbia University, died Friday, May 2, 2008, in Greenfield Health and Rehabilitation Center in Lancaster, following a long illness. She was 96. A native of Ashtabula, Ohio, the former Edith Swedenborg began studying piano and trombone during her school years and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in music education, from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, during the 1930s. After graduating, she taught music and art in Frewsburg before moving to Buffalo, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, where she taught in the Buffalo Public Schools. After taking time out to raise her family, Mrs. Geiger resumed teaching in the 1960s, as a classroom teacher and consultant, in the Early Push and Head Start programs, in the Buffalo School District, where her creative classroom caught the attention of Columbia University. In addition, an interest in art and nature earned her more than 100 ribbons awarded for freehand ceramic sculptures, at local and state ceramic shows. Fascinated by astronomy, she considered herself an amateur astronomer and specialized in lunar observations. In 1962 she became a member of the Buffalo Astronomical Association and was named a fellow in 1977. Music continued to be a part of her life through her later years, and she composed several works for piano. She also had composed music for concert band, brass ensemble, and the setting of a poem by former Buffalo School Superintendent, Joseph Manch, “A Tribute to Teachers,” which premiered in Kleinhans Music Hall in 1960. Her husband of 57 years, Carroll C., who served as director of music for the Buffalo Public Schools, died in 1992. Survivors include two sons, Ronald D. and Loren D.; and a daughter, Karen DeFries. A Funeral will be held at 11 a.m., Tuesday, May 6, in F. E. BROWN SONS FUNERAL HOME, 6575 E. Quaker St., Orchard Park, N.Y.