Helga Hosford

: Helga Hosford died on (date) of congestive heart failure. The daughter of Dr. Martin and Lotte Riebe, she was born on June 11, 1937 in Germany where she was raised and educated. At age 29, with an M.A. equivalent from the University of Munich, she was invited by Lewis and Clark College in Portland in conjunction with the National Defense Education Act to come to the United States as an instructor of German. Helga was accompanied by her six year-old son Rainer.

She continued her education, adding two more M.A. degrees and receiving her Ph.D. in Germanic Linguistics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1972. That same year she married William L. Hosford and adopted his daughter Sharon. In 1973, the family moved to Missoula where she taught German at the University of Montana and published several academic books and articles. In 1984, she changed careers and became a highly successful translator and interpreter. Her husband Bill preceded her in death in 1992.

Helga loved supporting the arts and was active in most cultural endeavors in the Missoula community, serving as member of Missoula Kiwanis Club and on the board of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, Hemlock Montana and the Northern Rockies Heritage Center.

She was enormously loved and appreciated by her many friends who will deeply miss her irrepressible humor, integrity, warmth and wide intellectual curiosity. Her door was always open to visitors who would often find themselves embroiled in enlightening conversations on all topics which would lead them to perusing her remarkable library.

Helga is survived by her son Rainer Schlichtherle, his wife Carol and their daughters Lauren and Hannah in Virginia and by her daughter Sharon Noake with husband Victor and their children Melissa and Matthew in Arizona.

There will be a celebration of Helga's remarkable life at Missoula's Hilton Garden Inn on November 1st, 2015 at 2:00 pm.


Read Helga Hosford's Obituary and Guestbook on www.missoulafuneralhomes.com.