Evelina Suhler passed away on Friday, March 15th at her home in Charlottesville, VA. Evelina was born in Berlin, Germany June 7, 1934 to Elizabeth and Dietrich Bodenstein. Her father had been a student in biology at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute prior to being asked to leave Germany because of his Jewish heritage. Quite fortunately, a post doctorate biologist from Stanford University, Dr. Victor Twitty, offered to get her father Dietrich a lab job at Stanford. When this all important permit arrived, the Bodenstein family sailed for San Francisco aboard a German freighter. After arriving in the US, Evelina lived for five years with her parents in Palo Alto, California where her father worked in the biology labs at Stanford University. At that time, Dietrich and family moved to New York City where he worked in the biology labs at Columbia University and then the Carnegie Institute of Washington on Long Island. Evelina and her mother then moved to Austin, Texas where her mother was employed to teach German at the University of Texas.
In 1952, Evelina met and married Lt. William Suhler, a University of Texas graduate, in Temple Beth El in Austin, Texas on June 7, 1955. Lt. Suhler was stationed in Arlington, Virginia in the Army Signal Corps. After military service, the Suhler’s returned to Texas (Ft Worth) where two of their children (Irene and Marc) were born. The family then returned to the Washington, DC area and continued to live in the area for the next sixty plus years where their other two children (Edward and Alex) were born. Evelina completed her bachelor’s degree at the American University in Washington, DC. Evelina became a library aide in the Montgomery County library system where she worked for seventeen years before retiring. Evelina is survived by her husband, William Suhler, her children and their spouses: Irene and Walter Spector, Marc and Lisette Suhler, Edward and Stephanie Suhler, Alex and Christine Suhler, and nine grandchildren and one great grandchild.
There will be a memorial service for Evelina held on Friday, March 19th, 2019 at the Colonnades in the Monroe room. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Hospice of the Piedmont in her name. The family would like to thank the medical staff at UVA hospital, the staff at the Colonnades, the professionals at the Hospice of the Piedmont and Tracy Gray for her tireless help to Bill and Evelina.
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