Helen Wood Brigham

Helen Wood Brigham died February 13, 2024 in Catawba County surrounded by her family. Born March 6, 1938 in Washington, D.C. Helen was the daughter of the late A.Z. and Mary Wood of Rock Hill, SC. A Cum Laude graduate from National Cathedral School in D.C. in 1956, she received a Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University in Speech in 1960. After which, she served a two year tour of duty with the Special Services division of the Army in Europe as a civilian. Overseas, Helen met and married Larry Brigham in Toul, France and became an Army wife for many years. In 1963, their son Larry, Jr. was born in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, followed by a year and a half in Verona, Italy. Back stateside, the family settled first in Columbia, SC where Helen taught Junior High History and Civics and their daughter Mary was born there in 1968.

Luck and Grace of Life brought the family to Catawba County, NC three years later. Helen started her career in Social Work at the Department of Social Services in 1972. She and only one other started what was to be called the Crisis Intervention Team for Child Protective Services in Catawba County. Along the way, she received a Graduate Fellowship in International Organization at University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC in 1976 and then went on to receive a Master's Degree in Public Administration from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC in 1979. She and wonderful others developed standards of practice for what became NC's first official state child protective services standards. As a Social Worker Supervisor of the Crisis Intervention Team, she was one of the first workers to become certified by the NC Social Work Certification Board. In 1992, she received the Hancock-Settlemyer Award for her outstanding services to families in the Catawba Valley. Helen loved many things... and her greatest was her love was of family and friends and doing what she could for others less fortunate. She was a champion for the weak, for those in need of food, shelter, kindness, caring, and information on how to improve their station in life. She gave generously of her time and energies to those less fortunate. She was a firm believer that everyone deserves an opportunity to make a way for a better life for themselves and their families. She knew education was a powerful tool that could help foster improvement in the lives of people and could also to help spread the knowledge of action for causes that she so thoroughly championed. She was also a firm believer that if you didn't vote, you had no room to complain or wallow in the what if's of politics. Voting is a right, a privilege, a gift and an obligation afforded to us by those who have fought, many who died, to preserve this sacred freedom, one that is one of our most important and truly a sign of one of our greatest strength of all, the hard fought right of a completely free and democratic process. She would have appreciated hearing the quote from our country's President the other day, "You can't only love your country when you win." She knew that not always getting your way is a part of life. It certainly doesn't mean if you lose, you should attempt to completely destroy the entire democratic process of free elections.

After her retirement in 1998 from serving her local region for more than 26 years at DSS as a Social Worker then as a Social Worker Supervisor, she still was a strong doer of good deeds in the County she loved, Catawba, with her volunteer services. They include activities such as delivering Meals on Wheels for over 20 years, the secretary for the Montessori school, volunteering for the Green Room selling tickets, ushering etc, as President of the Children's Advocacy and Protection Council, Head of Kid's Voting for the League of Women Voters, and working with Friends of the Library. She was honored in 2018 for her commitment and steadfastness of work she contributed to the Children's Advocacy and Protection Council underneath the sails on the square in downtown Hickory. On her Church board for numerous years, she was also the musical director and pianist at her beloved Unitarian Universalist Church of Catawba Valley for more than 40 years. She was instrumental in helping the church build its permanent home where it stands today. As her mother reinforced this, she also strongly believed that "Giving is one of the most selfish things you can do because it makes you feel so good." She was a lover of the fine arts and locally attended the Western Piedmont Symphony Orchestra and the Hickory Choral Society concerts for many, many years. Beethoven and Gershwin were two of her favorites. She also cherished the local community theatres, Hickory Community Theatre and The Green Room in Newton. Helen went to many Broadway plays in New York, many of which were musicals -her favorites. Enjoying singing and acting herself, she had fond memories of playing Pandamonium in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" in Verona, Italy. She read books ALL of the time, and one of her favorite historical people, Thomas Jefferson, had the famous line "I can not live without books." -neither could Helen. She loved going to wonderful places near and far, partaking of delicious foods, singing the music, and engaging and immersing herself in the local culture. She also knew what a privilege and honor it was to be able to do those things. She never took her wonderful adventures of comings and goings for granted. It truly was such a phenomenal gift.

Her lifelong gift to us all was the ways she protected and cherished children and animals on this planet that she loved. She also loved to enjoy Earth's abounding nature. From telling the tale of her favorite eagle story of when it swooped away to avert the hawk who was zeroing in on him in the sky trying to take the eagle's lunch (while she was on a raft in the Snake River in Jackson Hole, Wyoming), to the one where the fox took both her shoes "one at a time!" (while she was walking on the beach on Prince Edward Island in Canada), she always had a smile on her face telling the tale. Her love of nature was so apparent. She found so much beauty in all of God's gifts. She respected and protected the beauty that abounds in nature, and she also did everything she could to protect our natural lands for future generations up to and including having her license plate say "EarthNow". She did her best to help everyone one she met along the way enjoy and have a more rewarding and fulfilling life as well. She certainly did have a wonderful life. A childhood friend of Charlie Duke who, as she would say, "just happened to have walked on the moon", to having lunch with a then Senator John F. Kennedy in Washington, D.C. with her and other completely smitten classmates from school in the mid 1950's, or wearing oven mitts in her glove to stop to her brother's fast ball from stinging too much as he practiced pitching (who later went on to pitch baseball for UNC and was invited to pitch professionally), and then he also went on to play a Pro Am golf game with Arnold Palmer after he, her brother AZ, Jr., won the Reporters course after the Masters Golf Tournament (at the time he was the Sports Editor for The Augusta Chronicle in Augusta, GA) or to Helen's also astoundingly smart attorney father who after going to Princeton on an academic scholarship, went on to be being honored by Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter for being "the best student I ever had" at Harvard Law School as he was being introduced to the Supreme Court as a lawyer, or for Eleanor Roosevelt congratulating him for good deeds done. Helen indeed was surrounded by and lead an extraordinary life.

In quoting a question to her from a local reporter years ago, "Finish this sentence, 'What would you rather be doing?'" She smiled and responded, "What I'm doing right now." She never wished away anything. She knew life was too short to live in regret and certainly had times where life had been extremely generous to her. She was a kind strong gentle soul who will be most heartfeltly missed by her family and a great many others. She loved the UU hymnal Spirit of Life which in it have the words "Roots hold me Close, Wings set me Free". In addition to Helen's parents, she is preceded in death by her son, Larry Brigham, Jr. of Newton, NC, nephew AZ Wood, III :"Woody" of Savannah, GA and brother A.Z.F. Wood, Jr. "Zeke or Zab" of St. Augustine, FL. Those left to cherish her memory include (but certainly are not limited to) her daughter Mary Chapman and son-in-law T. Lance Terry of Hickory, NC; Three grandchildren, Larry B. Brigham, III "Trey", of Bluffton, SC, Joseph D. Brigham and John F. Terry, both of Hickory, NC; niece Kathy T. Wood, of Savannah, GA and nephew Walter C. Wood of Satellite Beach, FL as well as several cousins, extended family and a true treasure trove of the most incredible (many of which were her lifelong) friends. A Celebration of Life in Helen's honor will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Catawba Valley in Hickory, NC on Friday March 22, 2024 at 4:30pm with Reverend Melissa Sparks officiating. Zoom will be available from the church for those that wish to attend, but distance prohibits the possibility. In lieu of flowers, please consider contributing to one of Helen's favorite charities: Doctors without Borders: www.donate.doctorswithoutborders.org, Salvation Army: www.salvationarmyusa.org or to the Carter Center: cartercenter.org

Condolences may be left at www.catawbamemorialpark.com.

The Brigham Family is under the care of Catawba Memorial Park, Funerals & Cremations.