Austrian-born skating champ coached in Phila. many years

Helga Haid Devoe, 76, of Meadowbrook, a former competitive ice skater, ice-show star, and coach, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease last Sunday at home.

She grew up in a mountain resort near Salzburg, Austria, and learned to ski when she was 4, her family said.

By the time she was 17, she had won an Austrian junior championship.

In 1949, Mrs. Devoe competed in the European championships in Milan, Italy, and placed fourth in the Austrian nationals. After placing third in the nationals in 1950, she turned professional and toured Europe in ice shows, including Holiday on Ice.

"She was always the star," said her husband, William.

By the late 1950s, her career began to slow down, and she turned to coaching. She moved to Chicago, then took jobs in Cleveland and in the Catskills. One of her jobs in the Catskills was at Grossinger's, a resort where her students included singer Doris Day and the children of baseball's Jackie Robinson, her husband said.

Mrs. Devoe skated in her last professional ice show at Skegness, an English seaside resort in 1960. On the voyage home aboard the Rotterdam, she met her future husband at dinner. He had been in Europe on a business trip selling jet-engine parts for the ITE Circuit Breaker Co.

They married in 1961, and she moved from New York to Philadelphia, his hometown. They settled in Rockledge.

Here, she coached skaters at the Boulevard Rink in Northeast Philadelphia and then coached for 20 years at the Wissahickon Skating Club in Chestnut Hill. She was teaching at the Face-Off Circle rink in Warminster when she retired in 1999.

Mrs. Devoe taught her children and grandchildren to skate. Her daughter Denise won the intermediate ladies' title at the 1977 Eastern Sectional Figure Skating Championships, and granddaughters Sarah and Rachel Derita are competitive junior skaters.

Mrs. Devoe enjoyed needlecrafts and travel and often returned to Bad Hofgastein, the resort in Austria where she grew up and where, her husband said, she was still a star.

In addition to her husband, daughter and granddaughters, Mrs. Devoe is survived by a son, Gregory; grandsons Nicholas and Gregory Devoe; and a brother.

Services were private.