Bernice Oswald, 80, teacher

Bernice Boorstein Oswald, 80, of Center City, a teacher who was active in Jewish organizations, died of pancreatic cancer Thursday at St. Agnes Continuing Care Center in Philadelphia.

Mrs. Oswald grew up in Camden and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1946. She earned a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1950, and then taught kindergarten in the Philadelphia School District until her marriage to Stanton S. Oswald the following year. The couple met when they were counselors at Camp Saginaw in Oxford, Pa. While he was studying law at Harvard University, she taught in a pre-school in Cambridge, Mass.

The Oswalds raised a family in Cheltenham, where they lived for 25 years before moving to Center City in 1983.

After their four children were in school, Mrs. Oswald volunteered with an education program at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, transporting live animals in her Oldsmobile station wagon to classrooms. She would show children how to hold baby alligators and other wildlife, her daughter Beth said.

In the 1970s, Mrs. Oswald served as vice president of Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins park and was president of its sisterhood.

She served on committees for the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania in the 1980s and was a longtime board member and past president of the Hebrew Sunday School Society in Philadelphia. From 2002 to 2004, she was international vice president of the Women's League for Conservative Judaism. She had previously been president of the league's Philadelphia branch.

Mrs. Oswald collected works by promising artists and was very creative herself, her daughter said. She made costumes for her children's school productions and later designed and made tallits, Jewish prayer shawls, for friends and relatives.

She enjoyed opera and playing the piano.

In addition to her husband and daughter, Mrs. Oswald is survived by two more daughters, Jane Easley and Eve Robbins; a son, David, and seven grandchildren.

A funeral is scheduled for 1 p.m. tomorrow at Goldsteins' Rosenberg's Raphael-Sacks, 6410 N. Broad St., Philadelphia. Burial will be in Roosevelt Memorial Park, Trevose.