Noreen P. Ryan Hetznecker, 76, academic adviser

Noreen P. Ryan Hetznecker, 76, of Malvern, a retired academic adviser and an advocate for the blind, died of multiple organ failure Saturday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

A native of Chicago, Mrs. Hetznecker earned a bachelor's degree from Mundelein College there. In 1957, she married William H. Hetznecker. They met when he was a medical student at Loyola University in Chicago.

The couple and their five children moved to Merion Station in 1967. Mrs. Hetznecker was inspired by the civil-rights struggle, their son Paul said. When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, she and her children collected money from neighbors for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and cherished a thank-you letter from Ralph Abernathy, King's top aide, her son said.

She wanted her children to experience diversity, her son said, so she joined the predominantly African American congregation at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Overbrook.

Mrs. Hetznecker opposed the Vietnam War and was instrumental in bringing Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern to Merion in 1972. She was active with Amnesty International, the American Friends Service Committee, and Ralph Nader's environmental group.

"She raised her children to never let convention stand in the way of what she believed was morally right," her son said.

Mrs. Hetznecker earned a master's degree in education from Temple University in 1983 and was an academic adviser to Temple undergraduate students until retiring in the early 1990s.

In the early 1980s, doctors diagnosed an autoimmune disease that caused deterioration of her eyesight. Though totally blind by the early 1990s, with the aid of guide dogs she used public transportation to commute to Temple, events in Center City, and computer classes at the Montgomery County Association for the Blind in North Wales.

Mrs. Hetznecker visited elementary schools to teach students about the world of the blind. She joined the Philadelphia Museum of Art's classes for the blind, and several of her sculptural pieces were displayed at the museum. She also served on the board of the Pennsylvania Initiative on Assistive Technology, which advocates technology for the elderly and disabled.

She and her husband were subscribers to the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Wilma Theater, and the People's Light and Theatre Company.

In addition to her husband and son Paul, Mrs. Hetznecker is survived by sons Matt, Dan and James; a daughter, Sarah; nine grandchildren; a brother; and a sister.

Friends may call from 7 to 9 p.m. today and from 10 to 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Stretch Funeral Home, 236 Eagle Rd., Havertown. A Funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Denis Roman Catholic Church, 2401 St. Denis Lane, Havertown. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery, West Conshohocken.