Whether it was serving students as a school social worker or travelling to Africa to bring messages of hope and prayer, Linda Fuhrer was a true servant to both community and Christ.
She passed away peacefully in Naperville on June 18, 2016 at the age of 75.
Born in Bayonne, New Jersey to Danish immigrants in 1940, Linda attended Bayonne High School and during that time worked at the Macy’s department store at Herald Square in Manhattan and as a dental assistant.
College took her from streets lined with two-flats to rows of corn in rural Indiana and the campus at Taylor University.
There, her faith blossomed and she chose a career of Social Work that brought her closer to her life’s work of helping the most vulnerable of people. At Taylor, she pioneered the Junior Year Abroad and studied at the University of Aix- En-Provence. During that year, she traveled Europe on Eurorail, visited cousins in Denmark and spent the holidays at L’abri with Frances Schaffer, linking faith and intellect.
For 28 years, she worked at Hinsdale South High School, serving hard-of-hearing and deaf students and the challenges they faced as their social worker. She also served the disenfranchised BD students as the tried to establish more acceptable behaviors.
She served as a lay person in many churches, including, Wheaton Bible Church (co-sponsoring Conquerors, the HS youth group), First Presbyterian in Glen Ellyn (assisting in establishing The Central DuPage Pastoral Counseling Center), Knox Presbyterian (developing the Scott Moreau Pastors Education fund for Africa), Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church (taking a team to Argentina to work with a sponsored missionary couple) and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (as a leader of the mission team); the last three churches are in Naperville.
Wherever she worshipped, she brought a sense of of mission and service. She was active in trips to Africa and Honduras to work with everyone from adults studying at seminary to kids orphaned and suffering from AIDS. It brought her great joy to bring ball point pens and Bulls t-shirts on her many trips.
After exiting the public school system, she enjoyed mentoring future school social workers through Aurora University, served the local chapter of the American Association of University Women, participated as a board member on several mission funds, and spending time with her grandchildren, Annika and Anderson Fuhrer, at the sea shore in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, where she served on the Condo Board.
She will be missed by husband Larry and son Lance, who established The Linda Fuhrer Mission Fund in support of her legacy in mission and service.
She passed away peacefully in Naperville on June 18, 2016 at the age of 75.
Born in Bayonne, New Jersey to Danish immigrants in 1940, Linda attended Bayonne High School and during that time worked at the Macy’s department store at Herald Square in Manhattan and as a dental assistant.
College took her from streets lined with two-flats to rows of corn in rural Indiana and the campus at Taylor University.
There, her faith blossomed and she chose a career of Social Work that brought her closer to her life’s work of helping the most vulnerable of people. At Taylor, she pioneered the Junior Year Abroad and studied at the University of Aix- En-Provence. During that year, she traveled Europe on Eurorail, visited cousins in Denmark and spent the holidays at L’abri with Frances Schaffer, linking faith and intellect.
For 28 years, she worked at Hinsdale South High School, serving hard-of-hearing and deaf students and the challenges they faced as their social worker. She also served the disenfranchised BD students as the tried to establish more acceptable behaviors.
She served as a lay person in many churches, including, Wheaton Bible Church (co-sponsoring Conquerors, the HS youth group), First Presbyterian in Glen Ellyn (assisting in establishing The Central DuPage Pastoral Counseling Center), Knox Presbyterian (developing the Scott Moreau Pastors Education fund for Africa), Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church (taking a team to Argentina to work with a sponsored missionary couple) and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (as a leader of the mission team); the last three churches are in Naperville.
Wherever she worshipped, she brought a sense of of mission and service. She was active in trips to Africa and Honduras to work with everyone from adults studying at seminary to kids orphaned and suffering from AIDS. It brought her great joy to bring ball point pens and Bulls t-shirts on her many trips.
After exiting the public school system, she enjoyed mentoring future school social workers through Aurora University, served the local chapter of the American Association of University Women, participated as a board member on several mission funds, and spending time with her grandchildren, Annika and Anderson Fuhrer, at the sea shore in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, where she served on the Condo Board.
She will be missed by husband Larry and son Lance, who established The Linda Fuhrer Mission Fund in support of her legacy in mission and service.