Helen Ranney

Ranney, Helen G.


Madison: Helen Green Ranney died on May 21, 2015 in Madison, WI. She was born to David E. Green and Alice Dunham Green in Shaker Heights, OH on March 30, 1923, the youngest of four children.

Helen led an energetic life, full of adventure,
community, social causes, parenting and a marriage of 47 years. Her adventures began when as a young child, using an umbrella as a parachute, she was caught on a second story porch, ready to jump. She described herself from that point forward as a "daring devil".

After an engagement of a month and a day, she married Neil J. Ranney in 1948 and together they raised five children in Kirtland Hills, OH. As a mother, Helen encouraged all kinds of free play. She tried to foster creativity, flexibility,
independence and liberal values, and in large measure succeeded. The family lived in an unconventional house on a bridge over a pond, where swimming, skating, cattails and frogs were commonplace.

Helen graduated from Flora Stone Mather College (now Case Western Reserve) in 1944 majoring in psychology. As a young woman she loved living in Greenwich Village, NYC after college and serving in the Red Cross in Tokyo after WWII. She later earned advanced degrees in counseling and gerontology.

Volunteer work was central to Helen's life. The family hosted exchange students from India and South Africa and Helen promoted many intercultural exchanges. She was a humanist and a committed Unitarian Universalist. With Neil she was a founding member of the East Shore Unitarian Fellowship and later an active member of the First Unitarian Society of Madison. She was a strong supporter of many liberal causes; freedom to choose, gun control, the UN,and the Democratic Party among others. She lived her values and had tolerance and respect for the worth and dignity of all human beings.

Helen was an especially enthusiastic traveler.
The list is long, but whether it was a wedding in India, a gerontology study tour in China, a dude ranch in Montana, a houseboat in Yugoslavia or a choir trip to Transylvania, Helen was there. She made a priority of passing this value on to her children and grand-children who have embraced it.

Neil, an executive engineer, founded Production Machinery Corp.in Mentor, OH and Helen was a supporting partner as he grew the company. They retired to Madison in 1989 where they took delight in all that Madison has to offer. After Neil died in 1994, Helen continued to enjoy her music groups, her tennis chums and the many other organizations and activities she was involved in. Friends and staff at Capitol Lakes, where she lived for 17 years, gave her pleasure every day and enabled her come to the end of her life naturally, with dignity and peace.

Helen is survived by her children, Jane Ranney Rzepka, Susan Ranney, Judy Ranney, Scott Ranney and Tom Ranney, their spouses, thirteen grand-children and seven great-grandchildren, all of whom will miss her greatly.

Helen and her family have long supported charitable causes and they will continue to do so. She requested that friends continue to give to the charities of their choice in their own names.

A gathering to remember Helen and celebrate her life will be held on June 11, 2015 at Capitol Lakes, 333 W. Main St., Madison at 11:00 am. Please share a memory at www.CressFuneralService.com



Cress Center
6021 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53705
(608) 238-8406