Earl Ellis Zetterholm, son of Ellis A. (1889-1967) and Ida Henrietta (Reese) (1889-1984) Zetterholm, was born 25 May 1912 in Oak Park, Cook County, Illinois. Earl attended and graduated from Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois with a B.S. and A.B. He also studied at the universities of Iowa and Chicago. During his career he taught mathematics, chemestry and physics at Wheaton, University of Iowa and University of Vermont. Earl spent time in the state of Washington teaching. In the 1960's he also was a teacher at Okemos High School.
On 3 July 1941 Earl married Helen Ethel Paul. The union produced 8 children; Paul Ellison, Karl Norson, Ingrid Elaine, Margaret Lynne, Murray Alan, Eric William, Erica Ruth and Timothy Calvin.
Earl died 12 October 2006, burial information has not been located. Helen died 1 December 2015 and was laid to rest Maple Hill Cemetery, Charlotte, Michigan.
Helen Ethel Zetterholm (Paul), 98, was Born into Eternal Life on Tuesday, December 1, 2015. She was born May 14, 1917 in Philadelphia, PA, the cherished daughter of the late Charles and Emma Paul. Helen attended Wheaton College and received her undergraduate and master degrees from Western Michigan University before dedicating her career to being a librarian and teacher in the Lansing School District. She was a dedicated member of Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Lansing, MI, and enjoyed quilting, architecture and time spent in her garden.
Helen was the beloved wife of the late Earl E. Zetterholm; loving mother of Paul (Mary) Zetterholm, Karl Zetterholm, Ingrid (Ken) Pasfield, Lynne (late Richard Edwards) Zetterholm, Murray (Annette) Zetterholm, Erica Zokvic, Eric (Sarah) Zetterholm, and Tim (Cheryl) Zetterholm; and loving grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great grandmother to a legacy of over 70. Helen will be remembered not only as a kind woman with a gentle and steadfast spirit, but also as a child of the One True King.
Laurel Winkel (1968)
(from the May 1993 Chieftan Chatter, OHS Alumni Association)
Earl Zetterholm
"We contacted Earl Zetterholm, one of our outstanding Okemos High School science teachers. He retired from OHS a few yars ago. Mr. Zetterholm still lives on Hulett Road in Okemos. He is as busy in his retirement as he was while he was teaching. He tells us that his wife Helen is a "dutiful wife" keeping him in clean clothes and fixing him fine meals. They are both active in the Orthodox Presbyterian church. He has become computer literate and is doing a lot of theological writing for Christian organizations. He will be a delegate at a Multi-Denomination Conference in Illinois this summer.
"The Zetterholms enjoy traveling to the South and East; this is partically prompted by the fact that three of their eight children reside in the areas. Karl lives in Poughkeepsie, NY, and has retired from IBM at age 50; Ingrid in Huntington, Long Island, enjoys being a mother and housewife; Paul in Jackson, MS, where he is the pastor for a church; and Lynn in Fairfax, VA, works with computers in the Department of Defense. Tim lives in Ann Arbor and works as a computer consultant; Eric, also in Ann Arbor attends law school at U of M; Tim is in Detroit and works for a computer software company; and Erica is in Potterville and is climbing up the corporate ladder at GM (she, like Ms. Clinton is lookng at createrive ways to handle finance health care, serving as chairperson for a tri-county committee).
"An excerpt from a letter we received from Mr. Zetterholm (Zippy as we affectionately called him: follows:"
Dear Friends of Many Years at Okemos High,
So you want to know what Zippy has been up to since last we met! I know, you just want the important stuff. Let me just say this: at age 81 either everything is important, or nothing is important. As for me, God has been good. I am as much in possession of all my faculties as ever (which may not say too much) and so everything is still important.
I grow more concerned by the day for our country, which I perceive to be in a more tragic state than it was in 1980. We have a man sitting in the White House, who according to his manager, "of course he lied during the campaign, how else could he get elected?" How many times did I tell you that truth and integrity were lost commodities that had to be recovered if our people were to survive? So you see, I am still the same right wing religious fanatic that I always was . . . Well, there goes the bell, God Bless you all."