Elaine Marie Engh

Elaine Marie Engh, at the age of 96, left to be with Jesus on January 24, 2021.  Elaine was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois with her twin sister, Angela Reynolds, and younger sister, Shirley Weber. As a young woman, she attended Mundelein College majoring in mathematics before joining the Navy as a mathematician during WWII. She calculated trajectories for battle ships and worked on one of the Navy’s first computers in Virginia.  Afterwards, she returned to Mundelein to finish her teaching certificate.

She met and married her soulmate and lifelong love, Howard A. Engh (deceased), on June 12, 1948. A year later, they moved to Champaign-Urbana, IL with newborn twins to complete their college degrees under the GI Bill at University of Illinois.  Elaine enjoyed teaching in and around Chicago at both Catholic and public schools while raising five children; Jeannette Vasicek, John Engh (deceased), Michael Engh (deceased), Carolyn Read, and Mary Engh-Balmer.  In 1962, Howard and Elaine built a home in Key Largo with the help of Elaine’s father, Charles F. Krieter, a developer and contractor… this would be one of many homes they built over the years.  In 1969, they moved to Hawaii, where Elaine was a teacher for 20 more years before retiring from the Department of Education.  They traveled to Key Largo and Chicago often to visit relatives.  They lived life to the fullest, travelling around the world and living in Canada, Germany, and Japan before retiring to Gig Harbor, WA over 30 years ago.

Elaine and Howard had a loving 68-year marriage, and their Catholic faith and love of family were of utmost importance to them. Elaine was the best wife and mother anyone could have wished for, a grandmother of twelve, and great grandmother of seven. She was a planner extraordinaire, always anticipating what was needed and knowing what was best for the situation.  It seemed she had the right answer to what each person needed at the time.  Faith in God, love of family, generosity and thoughtfulness were some of her virtues, which are too numerous to mention here.  We will miss her until our last days.