Obituary of Gertrude A. Dittmar
My beloved sister, Trudy Dittmar, passed away peacefully on December 12, 2024, after a decade-long struggle with dementia. Trudy's life was fueled by her writing, which was not only her career but the way in which she made sense of the world and her role in it. Her professor at Columbia, the award-winning author Edmond White, perhaps expressed it best in his review of her critically-acclaimed book Fauna and Flora Earth and Sky, Brushes with Nature’s Wisdom. He wrote of the book, "Trudy Dittmar is an elegant stylist and an acute observer. She's read everything there is to read about the physics of rainbows, the habitats of porcupines, the winter survival skills of the moose, and the orbits of the planets, but even her learning is out-distanced by her patience, powers of looking, smelling, hearing, touching and tasting. Her originality arises out of this patience. And, magically, she is able to read into and out of the rich, endangered natural world an Emersonian understanding of self. This is at once the most objective and subjective book I have ever read.”
Trudy's writing came naturally. However, like everything she did, it was honed by hard work and determination. She attended the Baldwin School in Philadelphia for high school, received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA from the University of Chicago, and an MFA from Columbia University. Trudy’s extensive formal education helped her to build on the bedrock of intellectual creativity and exuberant love of life.
In Venice, Italy, Trudy married Luigi Sopelsa. When their marriage ended, she taught at Brookdale College before heading west, ultimately settling near Dubois, Wyoming. Her home there was a small cabin high in the Wind River Mountains where, undaunted by impassible winter roads, she routinely snowshoed two miles to bring home her groceries.
Trudy took great joy in the many experiences that life presented to her; the deep and enduring friendships she formed, gourmet cooking, gardening, and the exquisite homes she created and decorated including, of course, Duck Hollow Farm, her family homestead in Colts Neck, New Jersey. Perhaps most important of all was the time she spent with her nephew and niece, Dan and Alyssa Dittmar. Aunt Trudy introduced them to the natural world in Wyoming -- walking, hiking, and picnicking in all its natural beauty. She spent other times with them exploring the fields and streams of central New Jersey hunting fossils, salamanders, and reveling in its diverse plant life. Dan and Alyssa enjoyed sleepovers with her where they learned that there was a loving and safe world of which their mother and father needn’t be a part. Extra special were the wonderful meals she learned to cook so well in Venice.
Yet, above all… above all else… stood Duck Hollow Farm, her childhood home and the place she returned to and cared for during the last part of her life. Our family moved there when Trudy was four years old. From the beginning, she explored the fields, woods, and streams endlessly, sometimes against the wishes of her parents, exulting in each new discovery like arrowheads and tomahawks in the freshly plowed fields. She relished wildfowl, foxes, snakes, turtles, special plants, and the wonderful seasons that unfold in that corner of the world. It was on the farm where our father first instilled in Trudy the determination, independence, love of nature, and self-confidence that defined her. Our mother contributed her style, reinforced the love of nature, a love of beauty, gardening, and grace.
Trudy loved with the same intensity that she brought to all parts of her life. Her dear friends describe her as that person who impacted their lives more than anyone else. She described me as, "The best friend I have”, a high honor considering the extraordinary people that filled her life and demonstrating her ability to overlook flaws and peccadillos to bestow on me that rare and precious gift of unconditional love.
