| Sources |
- [S49] Long Island Advance (Long Island Advance, 20 Medford Ave, Patchogue, NY), 29 sep 1949, p. 1.
- [S1318] Old South Haven Church News, a periodic blog of the Old South Haven Presbyterian Church, Brookhaven, NY, http://oldsouthhavenpresbyterianchurch.blogspot.com/2013/08/news-death-of-helen-starke.html.
Death of Helen Starke
Helen Starke died in the early hours of today. She was 97 years old and the oldest member of Old South Haven Presbyterian Church. Helen became a member of the Church on March 2, 1964. She was ordained a Deacon in 1967 and an Elder in 1982.
Helen was the Long Island Advance’s Woman of the Year in 2006. In making that designation the paper said “In her day she shattered a glass ceiling”. She graduated from Adelphi in 1938 with a degree in chemistry. Her first job was with General Electric where she worked in the lamp research department. There she was busy discovering ways to improve phosphorous for GE’s fluorescent lighting. In 1941 she married Robert Starke. She left GE and traveled with her husband to his job in South Africa.
In 1943 Helen was working at Columbia University in their Division of War Research. She was not aware that the project she worked on was the Manhattan Project, the first effort of the United States to develop nuclear weapons. She left that job when she became pregnant with her first child. Over the next eleven years Helen and Bob had five children and began a life of community service: elected to the Brookhaven Common School Board in 1949 and then the South Country School District Board ; then named as a member of the original board of trustees of Suffolk Community College; a member of the advisory committee to raise funds to build a hospital in East Patchogue (what is now Brookhaven Hospital); and volunteer work at the St. Joseph the Worker Soup Kitchen.
- [S49] Long Island Advance (Long Island Advance, 20 Medford Ave, Patchogue, NY), 15 Aug 2013, p. 8.
Helen Starke, Advance Woman of the Year
BY CHUCK ANDERSON
It was easy to see why Helen Starke of Brookhaven was named the Advance Woman of the Year in 2006. Looking at her list of accomplishments, one may conclude that this iconic woman could have been named Woman of the Century.
After graduating with a major in chemistry from Adelphi University in 1938, she went to work for General Electric, developing phosphorus for fluorescent lamps. After her marriage to Robert Westaway Starke, she lived in South Africa and worked as a chemist in the diamond fields of the Transvaal. When she and her husband returned to the States, she joined the scientific staff of the Manhattan Project, helping to develop the atomic bomb. In 1944 she left that position to join her husband, who was stationed in Naval Ordinance in Maryland, where they celebrated the birth of their first son, Robert, a business consultant who now lives in North Carolina.
In 1946, the Starkes returned to their family home in Brookhaven and began raising the rest of their children: daughter Amy, born in 1946 (deceased in 1949); son John, a film producer, born in 1950; son William, who works for U.S. Fish and Wildlife, born in 1953; son David, who works for 20th Century Fox, born in 1955; and daughter Jane, a nurse, born in 1957.
On Thursday, Aug. 8, at the age of 97, Helen Starke took her final journey. She was predeceased by her husband, Robert Westaway Starke, who died on June 6, 2006.
Even while raising five children, Helen Starke kept herself occupied with a staggering number of activities and accomplishments: member of the school board of District No. 29 for five years, and member of the school board of District No. 4 for three years. In 1960, she was appointed by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to serve a nine- year term as a trustee of Suffolk County Community College.
During these years, Helen encouraged her friend Cindy Wellington to find seed money for the purchase of property upon which Brookhaven Memorial Hospital would eventually be built. Her son John said, “None of her children were born here, and she saw a need for a local hospital.” After the hospital opened its doors, Helen became one of the first volunteers, and shortly after became president of the Council of Auxiliaries and Volunteers.
In addition, Helen became an active member of the Suffolk County Heart Association, a charter member of Hospice, and a board member of Planned Parenthood in Eastern Suffolk. Her son Bob quipped, “Considering the different ages of her children [about two years apart], she practiced what she preached.”
Her son Dave added, “She would always say, ‘If you don’t like something, do something about it.’
”
Like a lot of scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, she came to regret the development of the bomb. She, Edna Tooker and Betty Puleston showed “Ban the Bomb” films in a shed at the boatyard. Later, Helen would join a march on Wash- ington in support of abortion legislation, and in her ‘80s, attended a rally in Central Park on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. In her ‘90s, she continued to volunteer at a soup kitchen in North Bellport.
In her later years, Helen enjoyed gardening with her husband. “Mom did the flowers, Dad grew the vegetables,” said daughter Jane. “If Mom had a secret vice, it was chocolate. She and I would sneak off to Friendly’s for a sundae. Mom was a voracious reader, and read the New York Times from cover to cover up to the week before her death.” Helen also enjoyed traveling on Windjammer cruises to Maine, and sailing on Great South Bay with her husband in the Elvira.
A memorial service is being planned by the family for Sunday, Sept. 1 at 4 p.m., which will be held at the Old South Haven Presbyterian Church in Brookhaven, followed by a celebration of life at 68 Bay Road in Brookhaven.
In a significant way, Helen Starke’s journey echoes a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: “Life is meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn her back on life.”
- [S49] Long Island Advance (Long Island Advance, 20 Medford Ave, Patchogue, NY), 15 June 2006, p. 5.
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1916 - 2013 (97 years)
