Helen Langsev Ambler was born and raised at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in Portland, Oregon. Her love of rivers and ocean waters shaped and fed her spirit and she would return to them often throughout her life. Helen passed away peacefully on February 1st, 2019, following a full life as an educator, designer, environmentalist, dancer, and nature lover. We like to think of her now, snorkeling in crystal blue Hawaiian waters, sitting by a rushing mountain stream, floating down the Truckee River, or paddling her inflatable boat around huge boulders at Sand Harbor in Lake Tahoe.
Helen was born April 29, 1922 in Portland, OR. From her father, David Bruce Ambler, she inherited her respect for nature and natural processes and often quoted him saying, “You don’t do it until you know how to clean it up!” From her mother, Adelle May Barrett-Lyde, she inherited a love of dance, music, and adventure. Her mother also taught her the skills of sewing, tailoring, and cooking that Helen later put to use in her career.
Helen was the middle of three daughters. She woke early to do chores before school, feeding the cows and tending to the chickens, roller-skating long distances, and enjoying a social life centered around Job’s Daughters. The family went almost every weekend, summer or winter, to their cabin on the pristine Washougal River in Washington, where they swam, rowed, fished for trout and trapped crawfish; pulling bracken fern and splitting wood were among the tasks required before being allowed to “go down to the river.”
After high school, in June 1941, at the age of 19, Helen sailed on the USS Mariposa to Honolulu to live with a relative. Helen’s love affair with Hawaii began while living there, in a cottage on a sprawling estate – with an enormous lawn, coconut palms, and a rushing stream nearby.
Helen was to begin at the University of Hawaii in January. On the morning of December 7th, 1941, Helen recalls seeing the faces of Japanese pilots as they flew past on their way to bomb Pearl Harbor. The attack on Pearl Harbor impacted Helen deeply; while there, she visited hospitals and wrote letters home from wounded soldiers. When visitors were ordered to leave, Helen sailed with the first convoy back to the mainland.
After attending Northwest Business College and working in Portland, OR, in 1943 Helen joined the United States Coast Guard Women’s reserve, known as SPARS. She was in the first class to graduate from Yeoman School and was stationed in the Los Angeles Yacht Harbor in Wilmington, CA.
There she met her future husband, Richard “Dick” Boatman. They married in 1944 and lived on the base until he was deployed. After the war, with the help of the GI Bill, they completed their educations at Oregon State University. Daughter Christine was born in 1949 while Helen was in her last year at OSU. She graduated with a BS in Sociology and a minor in Art and Home Economics. Helen’s marriage to Dick ended in 1955.
While working toward her Master’s degree and starting her teaching career in Portland public schools, Helen met her second husband, Floyd Langsev. They married in 1956 and moved to Menlo Park, CA. where their daughter Terilynn was born in 1957. Helen, while a stay-at-home mom, was also a Girl Scout leader for both daughters, volunteered to support families of disabled children, taught marketable skills to women in prison, and was active in the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Every summer, the family camped, swam, and fished along a river in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and visited family in Oregon.
It was around this time, on a trip to the Sea of Cortez, that Helen discovered snorkeling, an activity she loved. She returned to it frequently throughout her life, even up to her 90th birthday.
In 1967 Helen returned to college for her Master’s Degree at San Jose State University. Subsequently she taught Interior Design and Textiles at the College of Notre Dame in Belmont and Foothill-De Anza Jr. College District, while working part-time as an Interior Designer at the Franciscan Forge.
Keenly aware of the challenges that women faced as homemakers and mothers, Helen saw an opportunity to help: She developed and taught college level, for-credit cooking and design classes on public-access television for Ohlone Junior College, mailing workbooks to students and insisting on a sign language interpreter for deaf students.
Intelligent, irreverent, outspoken, and a force to be reckoned with, Helen was a woman of depth and character and had a quick mind and keen wit. Challenging the roles prescribed for women in her generation, she helped to pave the way for expanding women’s rights and opportunities. She worked very hard and believed strongly that education was the path to women’s equality.
When Helen’s marriage to Floyd ended after 23 years, she joined the Interior Design professionals at the Ethan Allen Gallery in Reno, NV, first living in Truckee, CA, then in Reno on the Truckee River until retiring from Ethan Allen in 1989.
Helen spent the next couple of years traveling extensively, primarily in Europe, Paris being one of her favorite destinations, and attending educational Elderhostel programs. In 1993 she built her own home in Salem, OR and joined PEO and the Daughters of the Nile.
In 1999 she “retired from house and yard work,” spent a winter golfing and snorkeling in Kona, Hawaii, and moved to Santa Barbara to live at Valle Verde (VV). Here she nurtured many friendships and continued her involvement in AAUW and the PEO Sisterhood. She enjoyed attending Unity Church, line dancing, and choreographing dances for VV residents. She was an avid reader and bridge player, an armchair expert on Georgia O’Keeffe, and a frequent participant in the VV bi-annual flower show.
Helen had a debilitating stroke in 2013. She was able to enjoy fulfilling activities in the intervening years and was lovingly cared for by her daughter and a close-knit team of dedicated and skilled caregivers, to whom we are eternally grateful.
Helen felt that her greatest contribution was teaching and said that her greatest joy was raising her daughters. She was motivated to work for change because she was touched deeply by social, political, and environmental injustices. She loved children and found simple, heart-felt joy when singing with others. Her no-nonsense, clever take on things was often shared with humor that had us laughing out loud. Helen will be missed.
Helen is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Christine and Geoff Gross; their son Nick (the apple of Helen’s eye), and his wife Jenn; Nick and Jenn’s children Riley, 17, Lauren, 7, and Harper, 5; and Helen’s daughter Terilynn Langsev. Also, by her sister Ann Boehlke and her nieces and nephews: Adelle Kelly, Lee Merwin, Kathy Gonzalez, David Merwin, and Robert Merwin.
For those wishing to remember Helen, contributions can be made to Oceana, an ocean conservation and advocacy organization.
