Helen Veronica (Rowe) Arnoldi

Born at Cottage Hospital in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan in 1943, she was the daughter of Elsie Veronica LaParche and Paul Wellington Rowe. Helen graduated from Grosse Pointe High School in 1961 and Eastern Michigan University in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work. She went on to become a social worker in Detroit and later Ann Arbor where she started her family. As her children grew, she started a new career in advertising at Buckheim & Rowland in Ann Arbor followed by a long and successful career in direct mail advertising sales with Valpak in Livonia.

Helen enjoyed gardening and adored her dogs Bridget, Ernie and Coco. She loved Lake Michigan and vacationed in the Leelanau and Saugatuck/Douglas areas every summer with family and friends. Helen loved nature and all animals great and small supporting many charities to protect them. She also supported local and national politics and was always knowledgeable and passionate about the events of the day. She was the long-time chair of the Michigan Opera Theater volunteer group, the “Divas and Divos” coordinating welcoming events and extending hospitality to opera singers from around the world. She loved fashion, design and art applying them to her life and sharing her passion with others. She had a wicked sense of humor.

Helen was a devoted “Nana” and loved to visit and care for her grandchildren, attend their school and sporting events and spend as much time as she could just listening, talking and knowing them. She kept them up a little too late talking and reading comics. She helped them to be kind and love animals.

Helen will be remembered most of all for her warmth and grace. She connected effortlessly with people young and old making them feel loved and understood. Her love for and devotion to her large, extended family was something that she actively showed by always being there. She attended every family event that she could, sent cards and notes, organized get-togethers and loved to host at the holidays. She was energetic and a hard worker her whole life. She was a dreamer, an idealist and she lit up every room that she walked into. She was beautiful inside and out and will be missed by so many.

Helen is survived by her loving daughters Sarah Arnoldi (Randall Weeber) and Katherine DePaola-Arnoldi; her grandchildren Aidan and Conor Easthope; Frankie, Violet and Cosette DePaola and Lucie, Clementine and Edgar Weeber who will miss her dearly. She is survived by her sisters Millicent Mank, Katherine Berger, Mildred Hogan and her brother-in-law Lou Marinos. She was preceded in death by her parents Elsie and Paul Rowe; her siblings Jack Rowe, Jane Clements and Alice Marinos as well as her beloved brothers-in-law Rolley Berger, Wayne Clements and John Mank and sister-in-law Dottie Rowe. She also lost, at young ages, nephews and nieces Tom Kerwin, Anne Mank, Eric Messer and Riley Messer.

The visitation and memorial service will both be held at the Muehlig Funeral Chapel on Saturday, August 7th. The visitation will be from 10a-12p followed immediately by the memorial at 12p. Muehlig Funeral Chapel is located at 403 South Fourth St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104