Evelyn Viets Obituary

Viets, Evelyn
Evelyn Cole Viets died peacefully March 24th, 2014 at the Bishop Wicke Health Center in Shelton, CT, in the company of her children. Born July 3, 1921 to Ralph Brooks Cole and Martha Chambers Cole, Evelyn was the youngest of five children and a native of West Haven. She attended Larson Junior College and the New Haven State Teachers College, receiving her BA in 1944. She later earned MA degrees in early childhood education from Southern Connecticut State College and CW Post College. Evelyn married the Reverend Wallace T Viets, an ordained Methodist pastor from Schenectady, New York, in 1944. The couple met in 1938 at Geneva Point Camp on Lake Winnipesauke in New Hampshire. They raised four children, made homes in New York and Connecticut while Wallace served pastoral assignments for the United Methodist church, and retired to Wesley Village in Shelton, Connecticut in 1983. Their close, loving and exuberant marriage lasted over 66 years. During World War II Evelyn directed a care center for children whose parents worked in arms factories. Her teaching career spanned 40 years and included pioneering research into the inequities of racial and cultural bias in early childhood aptitude testing. Evelyn's love of children endured throughout her life and extended to volunteering in the pediatric unit at Griffin Hospital after her retirement. Evelyn and Wallace enjoyed an active retirement together. They travelled extensively, sang in their church choir, read for Recording for the Blind and participated in weekly Bible study groups. Evelyn moved to the Bishop Wicke Health Center in 2008 where she was known for her high energy and enthusiasm. The last years of her life were comfortable because of the loving care and professionalism of the remarkable staff at Bishop Wicke. Evelyn's husband pre-deceased her in 2010. She is survived by their four children: Raymond (Victoria), Vienna VA; Robert, Waitsfield VT; Wesley (Marian), San Jose CA; and Marian (Philip Carter), Fair Haven, NJ; and five grandchildren: Ryan and Whitney Viets, and Christopher, Mattison, and Bradley Carter. Evelyn will be interred beside her beloved Wallace at the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven. A service celebrating her life is planned for the spring. Arrangements are with the Hawley Lincoln Memorial Funeral Home, 493 Whitney Ave., New Haven. Memorial donations can be made to The Bishop Wicke Health Center, 584 Long Hill Ave, Shelton, CT, 06484.