Winifred Whittemore Kneisel

Waltham – July 25th, 1915 was a Sunday and sunny and warm in Waltham. The Saint Louis Browns beat the Boston Red Sox 9 to 8, Woodrow Wilson was in the middle of his first term as president and Winifred Whittemore was born at home in Waltham. She lived there for the next fifteen presidents.

Winifred was a daughter of the late Harvey and Helen (Hardison) Whittemore and when she was eleven years old the city decided to name a school after her grandfather, Henry, who'd been Waltham's Superintendent of Schools in the late 1800's . . . safe to say that the family planted deep roots in the community and Winifred kept them watered with her lifetime commitment to the Waltham Historical Society.

She graduated from Waltham High School in 1933 and earned her bachelor's degree from Simmons College in Boston four years later. After college she worked as a teacher and in 1942 married Frederick T. Kneisel, an accountant. Widowed at fifty-three Winifred took up her husband's practice and worked until retiring . . . when she was 97.

Described by a dear friend, "Her mind was clear as crystal, her wit contagious, her optimism an inspiration, and her self-reliance admirable." In addition to the historical society, Winifred was a lifelong member of First Congregational Church of Waltham, the Piety Corner Club and was a member of Waltham's 1976 Bicentennial Committee.

Winifred Whittemore Kneisel died on Thursday, December 22, 2016 at Waltham Crossings following a brief period of declining health. She was 101.

She leaves her children, Fred W. Kneisel and his wife, Marcia, of Littleton, North Carolina and Helen M. Harrison of Inverness, Florida; her sister, Louise Pickett of Tampa, Florida; three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Family and friends will honor and remember Winifred's life by gathering for her Memorial Service at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, December 27th in Trinity Church, 730 Main Street, Waltham.

Memorial donations may be made to the Waltham Historical Society, c/o Francis Cabot Lowell Mill, 190 Moody Street, Waltham, MA 02453
www.walthamhistoricalsociety.org .