Phyllis S. Smith | Teacher, 84

Phyllis Scherr Smith, 84, of Fort Washington, a former Philadelphia public high school teacher, died of pneumonia June 12 at the Artman Lutheran Home in Ambler.

Mrs. Smith taught home economics at the Philadelphia High School for Girls from 1966 to 1981 and then at Lincoln High School until retiring in 1988, her son Philip said.

Her curriculum, he said, included sewing, knitting, cooking, nutrition, and child development. She also made costumes for school musicals, he said.

In the 1988-89 academic year, she was a substitute teacher in the Upper Dublin School District.

Mrs. Smith was a member of the Ambler YMCA from its opening in the 1980s until moving to Artman in 2006.

Born in Philadelphia, she graduated from Olney High School in 1942; attended Pennsylvania State University, where she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority; and earned her bachelor's degree in home economics from Drexel University in 1947, and her master's degree in education from what is now Marywood University in Scranton 32 years later.

Besides her son Philip, Mrs. Smith is survived by sons Howard and Richard; a daughter, Roberta; three grandchildren; and a great-grandson. Her husband of 61 years, Robert, died in 2006.

The funeral and burial were private.