Caroline H. Erbmann

Caroline H. Erbmann, age 82, of Glencoe, IL passed away on June 1, 2025, with her family by her side. Caroline was born on January 29, 1943 in Chicago, IL to William Hartmann and Caroline Sutherland Hartmann. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, and friend.

Caroline is survived by her husband Clement Erbmann, daughter Elizabeth Fallarme Smith (Charles), son Joshua Erbmann (Michelle), son Jonathan Erbmann (Angelina), and grandchildren Tristan and AJ, as well as her sister Rebecca Fields (Paul) and stepmother Bente Hartmann and brother Joshua Hartmann (Robin). She is preceded in death by her parents, and brother Philip Hartmann.

Services will be held on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, 1:30 PM at Weinstein & Piser Funeral Home, 111 Skokie Blvd, Wilmette, IL 60091. Interment at Memorial Park Cemetery, Skokie, IL. Shiva will be held from 4:00 - 8:00pm at the family home.

Caroline was a lifelong resident of Glencoe and attended New Trier High School, where she enjoyed her classes and playing her beloved cello in the orchestra, as well as being active in French Club, Latin Club, Yearbook staff, and the newly created student radio station, WNTH.

She attended Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA where she continued her love of languages and majored in French, Greek, and Latin. During her time there, she did her Junior Year Abroad in France. Her father also shared her love for France and French culture and they traveled there together, which she would talk about fondly.

After college, Caroline took a teaching position at the Brent School in Baguio, Philippines and met and married her first husband, Valentino M. Fallarme. While in the Philippines, her daughter Elizabeth was born and the three moved back to Chicago in 1968, where Caroline went to graduate school at the University of Chicago and earned her MAT. Caroline and Valentino (Toots) divorced in 1973, but remained friends until Valentino’s death in 2004.

Caroline began teaching French at New Trier West in the late 1960’s and was also an advisor and held Ethnic Cooking Classes, as well as co-founding an alternative learning program within the school called The Community. She was a devoted teacher and stayed in touch with many of her students throughout her life. Notable were her students Ed Zwick, who became a well-known writer, director and producer in Hollywood, and Sarah Ruhl, author and playwright, whose current book “Lessons from my Teachers” includes Caroline’s name in the acknowledgements as one of her great influences. Caroline enjoyed a 30 year career at New Trier teaching French, and later, English as a second language, as well as tutoring.

Like her mother, Caroline loved playing tennis and watching tennis matches on television, which she continued to do for the rest of her life, cheering enthusiastically at the screen. She enjoyed ice skating and skiing in her youth, and loved to practice and teach yoga throughout her years.

Caroline met Clement Erbmann in 1975 through a mutual French friend, and with Elizabeth moved to New York City in 1975, where Caroline pursued her second master’s degree in English as a Second Language at NYU, as well as teaching at an orthodox Jewish Girls’ School in Far Rockaway. Caroline and Clement married on April 1. 1977 at a ceremony at her mother’s home in Winnetka.

Caroline and Clement moved back to the North Shore, and while living in Wilmette welcomed sons Joshua Jacob (born 1981) and Jonathan William (born 1983) into their lives. Caroline raised her three children with an emphasis on education, reading, music, and learning about other cultures.

In the late 1980’s, the family relocated to New Jersey for three years, and while there Caroline converted to Judaism. Later, when she was a Sunday School teacher at Am Shalom in Glencoe, she taught Comparative Religion.

When the family moved back to the North Shore again, Caroline taught middle school French at North Shore Country Day School, where both her mother and Elizabeth had been students, and then went back to teaching French and ESL at New Trier. She also was a member of and taught classes at the Alliance Francaise in Chicago.

Caroline believed in being of service to her community. She served on the board of Am Shalom, the Glencoe Historical Society, Pilgrim Players and The Night Ministry. She always spoke up when she thought others were being treated unfairly, or where there was inequity.

We will remember her love of music, reading, travel, French culture, and family.

In lieu of flowers, we ask that you make a donation to The Night Ministry at thenightministry.org, or an organization of your choice.