Eleanor Peck Rekemeyer

Eleanor “Ellie” Peck Rekemeyer, “Posie”, “Aunt Pose”, died peacefully with her son at her bedside at Western Slope Memory Care in Grand Junction, CO, on August 16th, 2025. Her passing was the peaceful end to a long struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Ellie was born on December 19th, 1934, in Stow Massachusetts, one of five children born to William Henry and Eleanor Mannings Peck. She and her siblings were the fourth generation to live on and work the 250-year-old farmstead.

Throughout her life, she would always refer to the various aspects of farm work…raising chickens, cutting hay, and stories of a certain bull her father owned that had a mean disposition. From the age of nine, she was an expert tractor driver. Towards the end of her life, she always wanted to know when she would be going back to the farm in Stow, and how the chores were going.

Ellie was Valedictorian of Hale High School in 1953, and went on to Study Chemistry, Math, and Education at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. She was a natural scholar and, after graduating Magna Cum Laude, earned a scholarship to attend the Harvard School of Education to earn her Master’s Degree. She would often talk about raising chickens in the summer during college to defray the cost of her education. Ellie was athletic and participated in many sports, including basketball, skiing, and bowling, during her college years.

She taught chemistry at Winchester High School in Winchester, Massachusetts for three years before taking a full-time job as a Laboratory Chemist working in the nuclear field at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

At Oak Ridge, she met Pete Rekemeyer at a singles Thanksgiving dinner at a local church. Ellie and Pete were married for 62 years, had three children, and moved nine times over the years to many places in the western United States, and one memorable residence in Johannesburg, South Africa during the 1970’s. Three of those moves were back to Grand Junction, Colorado, a place both Ellie and Pete loved.

Being outside in wilderness areas was a great passion for Ellie. She and her family went on many camping trips in National Parks, both in the United States and in Southern Africa. Many miles were hiked through the Utah Canyon Desert Country, and Ellie did manage to take many precarious jeep trips into that canyon wilderness. It’s possible those tractor driving skills helped her get her family home safely from those jeep excursions once or twice. Her advice about questionable trails? “Don’t Go There.”

Ellie had an abiding faith in God and did not separate her appreciation for nature from her love of God.

Eleanor is survived by her daughter Cynthia (Steven) Lyell of Anchorage, AK, David (Madelaine) Rekemeyer of Grand Junction, CO, and Lincoln Township, WI. Grandchildren, Erin (Thomas)Parker, Kurt (Jordan) Lyell, Tsavo (Jenny Vaillancourt) Newcomb-Rekemeyer, Fern (Jacob)Sandstrom, and Drew Rekemeyer. Her sister Willena “Hydie” Buzzell, and John Peck.

She is also vibrantly survived by two great-grandchildren, Koa Parker and Eloise Sandstrom!

Eleanor is preceded in death by her husband, Peter Rekemeyer, son Steven Rekemeyer, and brothers, Willian Peck and Warren “Bud” Peck.

Many thanks and much gratitude go out to the compassionate staff at Western Slope Memory Care, who so diligently cared for Ellie for the final two years of her life, and Grand Junction family members, Jim Buzzell and Peg Hunter for their abiding care.

An October 2025 Memorial Service will be held Saturday, October 18, 2025 @ 11:00 a.m. in the First Presbyterian Church(3940 27 1/2RD in Grand Junction). Arrangements entrusted to Callahan-Edfast Mortuary.