Former St. Patrick teacher's giving nature remembered

If Sheila Fitzsimmons heard an ambulance siren while she was teaching class at St. Patrick Catholic School, she usually stopped what she was doing.

"She'd ask the students to take a second to pray for the person involved in the accident or whoever was hurt," said fellow teacher Mary Ellen Cordier. "It was just how she was. She was always instilling values."

"Mrs. Fitz," who taught for 25 years at the St. Charles school, died Tuesday. She was 72.

Family and colleagues remembered her as someone who was always giving to others.

"She always had a project, someone she was working on helping," said her daughter, Lori Soglin.

Even when she suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis, she was helping people who were more sick than she was, Soglin said.

Fitzsimmons, a Geneva resident, volunteered at Delnor-Community Hospital, Lazarus House, hospice groups and Pineview nursing home, among other places.

Soglin said her mother taught her the value of volunteer work, one of the reasons she and her husband have established a charity to provide free medical care to battered women.

"It's the best thing I ever learned from her: You have a lot, so give a lot back," she said.

As a junior high science teacher, Fitzsimmons held her students to high standards, but was willing to do whatever it took to help them meet those goals, said fellow teacher Martha McLaughlin.

"She was strict and commanded a sense of order," Mary Ellen Cordier said. "Yet there was a love in her heart for the kids, and I think the kids knew that."

Fitzsimmons was available at any time for students or co-workers who needed academic or personal help and advice, said teacher Ken Cordier.

"The school day never stopped for her," he said.

Her curriculum usually went beyond the grade level she was teaching and her students went to high school highly prepared, he said.

Even after she retired 14 years ago, she organized the school's ski trip every year and returned for school events.

Survivors include her husband of 50 years, Bob; her daughters, Lori and Jeanne; her son, Robert; and seven grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 5 to 9 p.m. today at Norris Funeral Home, 100 S. Third St. in St. Charles. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. on Saturday at St. Patrick Church, 408 Cedar St. in St. Charles.

Contributions in Fitzsimmons' memory can be made to the American Cancer Society for breast cancer research or to the Namaste Medical Fund, c/o Dr. David Soglin, 638 Judson Ave., Evanston 60202.