Helen M. Doherty

Age 84
Educator
PALMER, PA

Helen M. Doherty, 92, died Wednesday, July 11 at Old Orchard Health Care Center in Palmer Township.
Helen originally from Easton and Bridgewater Township, NJ was born Aug, 1, 1925 in Camden, NJ, the daughter of Albert A. Hartman and Margaret T. (Steigerwald) Hartman. The family subsequently moved to Gibbstown, NJ, where Helen attended Greenwich Township School across the street from her home--a harbinger of her life-long association with education.

“For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a teacher,” she recalled in a 2002 interview. “I lined up my dolls as a class and insisted my brother play too.”

Helen graduated from Paulsboro High School, where she developed her passion for science, and Rowan University (Glassboro State College) in 1948. She often talked about how she caught the train behind the Greenwich school to attend college and how the engineer made an unscheduled stop to pick up and drop her off a block away from her house.

Armed with a Bachelor degree in teaching and a job placement referral from the college, Helen landed her first teaching experience at Finderne School in the Bridgewater Township, NJ school district. It was there that she met and married the school’s industrial arts teacher, Patrick R. Doherty, Jr. Helen took time off to start a family with two sons born in 1955 and 1959.

Helen returned to the classroom in 1960 with a variety of substitute teaching assignments, eventually taking a full-time position as a sixth grade teacher at Van Derveer School in the Somerville Public Schools system.


It was the start of a 50-year relationship that saw Helen become helping teacher for the district and supervisor of state/federal programs for 13 years. In 1986, she returned to the classroom until retiring from teaching in 1992. That was the start of her second career with the district as science program coordinator and educational consultant, in which she pioneered the use of video conferencing and distance learning. Today, the school still honors Helen’s dedication to education by holding an annual Helen M. Doherty Science Fair in her name.

Helen is predeceased by her parents, her husband and her brother. She is survived by her sons, Timothy E. and Christopher M., daughter-in-law, Laura J.; her eight grandchildren; Timothy’s children—Joseph and Ryan Current, Erin Miller, Megan, Sean; Christopher’s children—Patrick, Kaitlyn and Ryan; her great-grandchildren, Julian and Jayden Current and Khaylli, Rhylee and Daymian Current.

Visitation will be held on Sunday, July 15th from 2-5pmand on Monday, at 8:15am at Cusick Funeral Home, 80 Mountain Ave, Somerville, NJ 08876. A Mass of Christian Burial will be on Monday, July 16th at 9:30am at Immaculate Conception Church, 35 Mountain Ave, Somerville, NJ 08876 followed by her interment at Calvary Cemetery & Chapel, 2398 West Marlton Pike, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to Somerville Board of Education, 51 Union Ave.,
Somerville, NJ 08876 in care of the Helen M. Doherty Science Fair.