Harriet Mary Blomquist RasakaHarriet Mary Blomquist Rasaka was born in 1912 in Savannah, GA and died in 2009. She attended Wesleyan College, where she earned bachelor's degrees, and then attended grad school at Emory University where she earned a Master's degree in Chemistry. She worked for the United States Department of Agriculture in San Francisco and in Stockton in the 1930's and 1940's. She worked as a high school math instructor in Modesto at Downey High School and Beyer High School from the 1950's to 1970's. She retired in 1978. She is my grandma, and she gave me the best gift anyone ever gave me: unwavering, continuous, perfectly relentless, dependable, unconditional gracious support and love. She and my grandpa moved near me and my family in the 1980's and I spent many evenings at her house, having dinner, getting some yummy dessert, and going over my homework with her (she tutored me in math and science all throughout grade school, junior high, and high school). I have always thought of her as a woman who could do anything - she had a private pilot's license and could fly a plane, she had traveled all over the place, she endured and fought for equal pay for herself in times when women were routinely paid a small percentage of what men were paid, she stood up for herself and spoke out for others, and she had a lot of strong funny smart friends who loved her dearly. At her funeral, a friend of hers watched my young daughter fall apart yelling and screaming and crying, and said, "That must be Harriet's great-granddaughter because she has her spirit."
Honored by Leanne Waldal |
