Eleanor M. Kelley, longtime French teacher, lifelong athlete, and mentor to many, has died at 79
She worked with students from around the world at International Christian High School and chaperoned nine trips to Paris with her French classes.
Eleanor M. Kelley, 79, of Philadelphia, longtime French teacher at International Christian High School, onetime adjunct professor at Temple University, role model, mentor to many, and lifelong athlete, died Friday, Feb. 20, of complications from Parkinson’s disease at Rydal Park & Waters retirement community in Jenkintown.
An honors graduate at Abraham Lincoln High School and twice at Temple, Mrs. Kelley was a compassionate, faith-driven intellectual who excelled at languages, teaching, and friendship. She taught French for two years as an adjunct professor at Temple and then for 48 years, from 1972 to 2020, at Cedar Grove Christian Academy and its successor, International Christian High School.
She worked with thousands of students from around the world at International Christian in Olney and chaperoned nine trips to Paris with her French classes. She connected with students, they said in online tributes, by smiling often and singing songs and quoting the Bible in French.
Former students called her “intellectually challenging” and “fiery when it came to teaching French.” They said: “You never gave up on us.”
Her achievements were recognized by educational organizations, and she told her husband, Bill: “I need to find new ways to challenge the students. I must avoid getting caught up in the routine of teaching.”
Nearly everyone called her Madame Kelley, and they dedicated three school yearbooks to her. Several of her online tributes were written in French. “Au revoir, Madame,” they said. “Merci.”
» READ MORE: Survivors give advice about mourning their loved ones, as told to The Inquirer’s obit writer
On Facebook, Benjamin Brittin, head administrator at International Christian, said: “Mrs. Kelley was a devoted co-worker, wise, fair-minded, loving, and faithful in her support of both students and colleagues.”
She also taught English and health, and was the school’s discipline administrator and director of the Honors Society. She served on school and church committees, and helped her husband coach the International Christian boys’ basketball team.
“She was one in a million,” a former school colleague said in a Facebook tribute. Another said: “I will never stop striving for the perfection you maintained with incredible grace.”
Mrs. Kelley played basketball and volleyball in high school, and later earned 10 medals and trophies at local running events. One time, her husband said, she slowed near the end of a race so a friend could pass her and win a medal.
She earned three awards for coaching the boys’ basketball team at International Christian, and she and her husband ran often in Wissahickon Valley Park and along Kelly Drive.
“Teaching was her passion, indeed a promissory gift to so many of her students,” her husband said. “She was a fisher of minds and souls who made ideas matter.”
Eleanor Mary Tolia was born Feb. 12, l947, in Philadelphia. She enjoyed family vacations in Atlantic City when she was young and graduated summa cum laude from Abraham Lincoln High.
She met Bill Kelley when both were students at Temple, and they married in 1972. He was on his way to basketball practice one afternoon when he saw her in her father’s diner, and he stopped in to meet her.
They lived in Roxborough, and he doted on her for more than five decades, including daily visits to her bedside over the last year. At Temple, she earned summa cum laude bachelor’s and master’s degrees in French.
Mrs. Kelley and her husband made memorable trips to Cape Cod Bay in Massachusetts and the Jersey Shore. She loved flowers and Italian food, adopted three stray cats, and framed and displayed all 54 of the poems her husband wrote for her every Christmas.
She usually mailed more than 125 Christmas cards and stayed in touch with former students who became old friends. She wrote letters to the editor of The Inquirer about local events, filled 30 albums with photos, and saved practically every note and letter she ever received.
Friends called her Ellie Kelley. “She showed more humanity than anyone I ever met,” her husband said. “She gifted me more of my humanity. She was my life. She was my hero.”
In addition to her husband, Mrs. Kelley is survived by a brother and other relatives.
Private services are to be held later.