​Fae Koelker (nee Faye Jean Hodge) was born on August 12, 1933, and passed away on July 9, 2022. All of her children were with her. She was preceded in death by her father, John Haurice Hodge, her mother, Oma Pearl Hodge, and her youngest sister, Bou Walters.

​Fae is survived by her six children: Jacquelyn Lee Lee (Harold Dale Lee, Jr.), Cynthia Jeanette Koelker, M.D., Susan Kathleen Pritchard, Kelly Jean Koelker (Bob Wolfe), Richard Joseph Koelker (Umran Koelker) and Patricia Elizabeth Koelker (Victor van Buchem). She is also survived by her sister, Janice Erie Howes, and her brothers, Kenneth John Hodge (Linda Hodge) and James Roy Hodge, and 14 beloved grandchildren and their spouses: Amy Faye Sato (Chris Flessner), Justin Andrew Sato, Celeste Marie Wagner (Brad Wagner), Jonathan Adam DeFord, Michael Lukas DeFord, Katrina Marie DeFord, Benjamin Errol Pritchard (Olga Pritchard), Jebediah Duncan Pritchard, Zachary Dakota Pritchard (Paige Elizabeth Pritchard), Coda Calico Jasmine Derrig (Daniel Derrig), Ellery Rose Koelker-Wolfe, Joshua Jeremy Rowe, Indigo Chance London and Aria Chesapeake Cadeau. Her great grandchildren include Landon David Flessner, Ethan Sato Flessner, David Glen Wagner, Isabella Grace Pritchard, Enzo Emanuel Joseph Derrig and Esmé Evangeline Azura Derrig. Other special extended family members include Shinichi Sato, Harold DeFord, Edward William Pritchard, Larry Pantages, Frank Rowe, Melissa Cairns, many nieces and nephews, friends and teachers from her preschool, and her faithful caregivers: Linda McAllister, Betty Corder, Sharon Sharp and Yolanda Iddeen, all of whom became a part of her family.

​Fae attended Spicer Elementary School and graduated in 1951 from Central High School, not Central-Hower, she reminded everyone. On Valentine’s Day, 1953, she married Richard Lee Koelker.

​In 1969, when her youngest children were both just toddlers, Fae founded Play & Learn Preschool at Adell Durbin Park in Stow, Ohio. This school later relocated to the Stow Community United Church of Christ. She also owned and directed a preschool at Arlington Memorial Baptist Church and ultimately spent the last thirty-five years of her career at Eastgate Preschool located at the North Springfield Presbyterian Church. During these years, many of her grandchildren and even one great grandchild were lucky to attend Preschool with their Granny.

​While managing and teaching at Eastgate she attended the University of Akron and graduated magna cum laude in 1981 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education.

​Although early on Fae promoted her schools by hiring her children and their friends to pass out handbills at the astonishing rate of a penny a piece, in her personal life, she was modest, frugal and generous. She donated anonymously to people she knew were in need and corrected financial injustices without expectation of reward.

​To her children she gave her time and creativity. She made three meals a day plus a bed-time snack. Just think of the dishes! At Thanksgiving, she made the best pies: chocolate, pecan, custard, pumpkin and apple. She tried to teach her children and grandchildren how to make the perfect pie crust but no one could ever match the flaky crimped edges she made so effortlessly.

​At bedtime, she read to her children, including the entire Childcraft Book of Stories and Poems. Children need to hear rhythm and alliteration early on, she said. Her children still remember "The Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee."

​In her long life, she traveled with her children to so many places: Salt Lake City, Atlanta, San Diego, San Franciso, Pasadena, Seattle, Vancouver, Nova Scotia, Bangor, Hartford, Somerset, Jabez, Appalachia, Columbus, Hilton Head, Michigan, Montana, the Dakotas, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and a trip from Chicago to Los Angeles on a train. Wake up, she said to her children. We are crossing the mile-wide Mississippi!

​To her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she gave pure love. She was certainly the best Granny ever. Friday nights were movie nights with Granny and everyone got their own pizza and a blanket on the floor in front of the TV.

​She taught her children and grandchildren how to do cross-stitch, how to cook, including the best chicken biscuit casserole ever and how to clean up. Clean a room everyday, she said, and your house will always be clean. She taught them how to sing including the very special Pepsi Cola song. She taught them how to take time to do something right the first time and how to be classy all of the time.

​She taught them the importance and love of reading. If you can read, she said, you can learn anything. Most importantly, she taught them how to love by demonstrating her love everyday.

​In the end, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren repaid the love she had taught them by caring for her, singing with her, playing the piano for and with her, planting flowers for her, bringing her jamocha shakes, pizza and donuts, by hugging her and gently bonking her on the forehead and by finding the world’s best caregivers for her. Linda, Betty, Sharon and Yolanda all loved Fae and she loved them back. Fae would never have made it so far without them.

​When she came into the world, she cried and the world rejoiced. Then she lived her life in such a way that when she died, the world cried and she rejoiced.

​Rest in peace, Mom, Granny, Fae. We will always remember.

​Everyone is welcome to join Fae’s family and friends for a Celebration of her Life, Saturday, July 30, 2022 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Eastgate Preschool, 671 Canton Road Akron, Ohio 44312. 

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to any of the following:

The Eastgate Preschool Scholarship Fund (via this website)

The Smile Train (at www.SmileTrain.org)

Summit County First Things First (https://summitcountyfirstthin…

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