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- Baltimore Sun, July 16, 2010
Paula Bassett Balser
Paula Bassett Balser was born on January 15, 1916 and died peacefully on July 9, 2010 at Broadmead in Baltimore. Mrs. Balser grew up in Camden and Ocean City, New Jersey and in Bronxville, New York, and she graduated from Duke University in 1937, Phi Beta Kappa. At Duke she was very active in social issues of the time, and she served as president of the student government in her senior year. Mrs. Balser received her MSW from New School of Social Work (Columbia University) in 1939 and began her career of service to her community with a position as psychiatric social worker with the Children's Aid Society. She married Dr. Benjamin Balser in 1939 and continued her social work career as a volunteer after her sons were born in 1942, 1943, and 1945. Mrs. Balser travelled extensively with her husband, a Doctor in psychiatry with the U.S. Army during the war and in the postwar period. She was tireless in her devotion to the people of New York City, and became deeply involved with the work of the Hudson Guild in Chelsea. She served there as a counselor, a social advocate, a liaison to the trustees and then a trustee herself. In 2006, a newly refurbished outpatient psychiatric counseling center was named for her in honor of her years of service there. From 1970 to 1977, Mrs. Balser served as a consultant to the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Department. From 1978 until 1989, she served on the City Hospital Visiting Committee, with a special focus on mental health and substance abuse services. In 1989, Mrs. Balser moved to Baltimore to live in the community of Broadmead in Cockeysville. There she was extremely active in social, cultural and intellectual activities, and she served on many committees, primarily those related to health issues, always adding her incisive comments to discussion. Mrs. Balser made many contributions to the social fabric there, and she was deeply committed to the shared values of the community. Mrs. Balser loved to help people and she loved to travel in the U.S. and abroad, but the center of her life was her husband, their three sons and her ever expanding extended family. In the last twenty years she was the central, beloved focus of many gatherings of family and friends.
Mrs. Balser was predeceased by her husband, Dr. Benjamin Balser, and by her sister, Helen Bassett. She is survived by her three sons, Paul Balser of New York City, Richard Balser of Portland, Maine and Stephen Balser of Danbury, Connecticut and their wives, by seven grandchildren and by thirteen great-grandchildren. She will be sorely missed by them all.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1916 - 2010 (94 years)