Hortense Bader-Wood, teacher

Hortense Blank Bader-Wood, 99, formerly of Bryn Mawr, a retired French teacher, died Dec. 26 at the Quadrangle in Haverford.

Mrs. Bader-Wood grew up in Glen Ridge, N.J. Her father, Henry Blank, a prominent jewelry manufacturer, survived the sinking of the Titanic.

As a teenager, she studied for two years at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and in her free time sat in the gallery at League of Nations sessions.

After returning home, she designed high-fashion sweater patterns for a New York clothing manufacturer. In 1939, she married Charles Bader III. They raised two children in Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd.

Mrs. Bader-Wood taught French in the 1960s and 1970s at the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, the Agnes Irwin School in Rosemont, and Northeastern Christian Junior College in Villanova. She developed one of the earliest electronic language labs, said her daughter, Jeanne Bader, and chaperoned students on trips to Quebec.

She spent summers studying language at Middlebury College in Vermont to keep current, her daughter said, and later was the oldest member of a neighborhood French-conversation group. Recently she delighted in discovering French-speaking nurses aides from the Caribbean at the Quadrangle.

In her younger years, Mrs. Bader-Wood was active with Planned Parenthood and volunteered to work with families who had children with developmental disabilities. She studied art at the Barnes Foundation and loved to travel and entertain. It was her custom to give presents to everyone else on her birthday, her daughter said.

Her first husband died in 1977. In 1980, she married John Wood. He died in 1992.

In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Bader-Wood is survived by a son, Charles IV; stepsons Jim and Robert Wood; stepdaughter Eleanor Bell; and nine grandchildren.

A memorial celebration was held Dec. 28 at the Quadrangle.