White River Jct., VT - Elizabeth Joan Reiche, universally known as Tita, died on November 23, 2015 from a rare nasopharyngeal cancer that had metastasized. She was 61. Tita was born in Concord, Massachusetts on July 24, 1954, to Harald and Irene Reiche who had been born in Berlin and Paris respectively. Her parents valued their European heritage and culture and poured that into their children. Tita's early life and education were deeply influenced by year long stays in Europe when her father, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, taught there. In Athens Greece, Tita learned French from nuns, in Berlin she studied at the John F. Kennedy High School, and in Oxford, England she learned to talk like a British teenager. Tita graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1976 after just 3 ½ years with a B.S. in Zoology. She would say to those who asked, "I graduated from UMass Amherst and I am wicked, wicked, smart."
After a short stint, 1976-1980, as a laboratory technician in Arizona, she lived in the Upper Valley raising sheep and ducks, weaving, attending craft shows and workshops, selling homes for Northern Energy Homes, selling woodstoves for Vermont Casting and Woodstock Soapstone.
In August 1990, having met him while hiking in the Adirondacks, she married Bruce Riddle at the MIT Chapel in Cambridge and moved with him to Syracuse New York where she gave birth to sons Galen and Torin. Parenthood led to facing the challenges of intercity schools, coaching multinational youth soccer with children from around the world and accreditation from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
Bruce and Tita returned to the Upper Valley in January 2000 when Bruce took a job at Dartmouth College. Tita worked as a salesperson and manager at Anichini and then as advertising manager for the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, a job and work environment she greatly enjoyed. Outside of her work she coached in the Hartford Soccer Club for elementary school students and took up quilting. She joined the Northern Lights Quilt Guild, which she served as president and chair of the biannual quilt show. Her brother Chris, who predeceased her in 2009, and wife Lisa visited from Boston regularly to housesit two dogs and two boys, allowing her and Bruce to travel.
Tita was well known for her ability to make the sale for both her employers and various nonprofits, as a fundraiser. Her wonderful cooking was a minor legend.
Tita always had a hopeful, positive and upbeat spirit, and she was rarely discouraged. Some felt she was fearless, and certainly she was a fierce advocate for her sons. Tita was angry when her cancer diagnosis interrupted her life as her boys were stepping into the world. She was very clear that her obituary should not say "she fought a valiant or courageous battle with the disease."
In addition to Galen, Torin and Bruce, Tita is survived by two sisters, Victoria Gaar, of Louisville KY, and Katherine Bigel of Los Angeles, CA., and brother Chris' widow, Lisa Deschenes of Arlington, MA. In addition to Chris, Tita was predeceased by her father in 1994 and her mother in 2012.
Please, in lieu of flowers, send a contribution to The Sharon Academy, PO Box 207, Sharon VT 05065. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, March 12, 2016, 11:00 AM, at the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College, 40 College St, Hanover, NH 03755.