Hilary Morse Obituary

After a prolonged illness, Hilary I. Morse died of metastasized rectal cancer on April 5, 2015. She was known in the Colorado Springs community as a teacher in the charter school, core knowledge system. This had not always been her chosen career.

Born July 28, 1942 and raised in Detroit, Michigan, she graduated from Lutheran High School, East in 1959. Her parents sent her off to Wayne State University saying, "Teaching is your skill set. Get your degree and teach." Hilary had other ideas. She got the degree and taught for a few years, married and became active in her husband's photographic business.

After 14 years of marriage, she joined the ranks of single parenting her two daughters, Gretchen, then four and Maggie, ten. Upon becoming a single parent, Hilary trained with several job placement agencies and worked in the business sector in office management for years; most notably with Honeywell Corporation in Michigan and Sony Corporation in Chicago, Illinois. Eventually these positions dried up and Hilary pulled out her old trusty teaching degree and landed a position at St. John's Lutheran School in Chicago, Illinois as a 5th grade teacher. While there, she became very interested in church work and decided to get a Deaconess certification.

Hilary entered Concordia, River Forest and began work on the Deaconess colloquy. However, St. John's Christian Board of Education had other ideas. They called her as a teacher. All the Deaconess credits transferred to a certificate as a Called Teacher in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Eventually, her youngest daughter settled in Colorado and Hilary took a call to teach at Immanuel Lutheran School to be near her family.

Life has been an interesting ride. Her parents had the final say. Here's your skill set. Go teach. And she loved it passionately.

One of her 2nd grade students asked her one day if she had always wanted to be a teacher. Her response was, "I never wanted to be a teacher." The student backed up, folded his arms, looked her up and down, then said, "Well, I would say that you have had a change of heart."

Hilary leaves behind two daughters, Gretchen Morse Lehman from Colorado and her two daughters, Madeleine Grace and Chloe Belle; and Margaret Morse Mills from Pennsylvania and her two daughters, Corisa Michelle and Morgan Taylor.

Visitation, 7:00PM-9:00PM, Friday, April 10, 2015, The Springs Funeral Services, 3115 East Platte Avenue, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Funeral Service, 10:00AM, Saturday, April 11, 2015, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 4125 Constitution Avenue, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Inurnment will take place at 1:30PM, Monday, April 13, 2015, Holy Cross Lutheran Church Columbarium.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Hilary's name may be made to Wounded Warriors Project, P.O. Box 758517, Topeka, Kansas 66675, www.woundedwarriorproject.org or St. John's Lutheran School, The Henry Knueppel School Endowment Fund, 4939 West Montrose Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60641, (773) 736-1196.

Her life's song has been that people see the heavenly creator and not her in all she does. She lived her life in joy, danced as if no one was watching, loved as though she had never been hurt before and sang as though no one could hear her.