Obituary for Ellen N. Tyack
Ellen Nancy Cohen Tyack
Ellen N. Tyack passed away at her home surrounded by her family after a courageous battle with cancer. She was 64.
The daughter of the late Morris and Mildred Appel Cohen, she was born on June 11, 1946 in Chicago, Illinois.
Ellen was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison receiving a BA in English in 1968. She was active in Civil Rights and Anti-War activities and marched on Washington D.C. several times.
She married the love of her life, Jim Tyack, on November 10, 1968 at the Sheraton Blackstone Hotel in Chicago. They lived together for 35 years, in San Francisco, Long Island, Baltimore, and Orange County, New York, until Jim’s death on March 6, 2003.
In May of 1981, she received her Master in Social Work degree from Adelphi University. She worked for many years as a NY State certified and then NY State Licensed Master Level Social worker. Ellen was always proud of working within the system to help change the world, hopefully for the better, a little bit at a time.
Ellen worked as a social caseworker at Suffolk County and Orange County Departments of Social Services until she completed graduate school in 1981. She was a member and former shop steward for Public Employees Federation. She was the first social worker for the Epilepsy Society of Southeastern New York until 1984 and then a social worker and social work supervisor for Hudson Valley DDSO until her retirement in December 2004. Ellen was very civically active, her memberships included: the Florida School Districts Annexation Study Committee, Concerned Citizens of Wawayanda , former chair and member of the Town of Wawayanda Democratic Committee and was a volunteer for Habitiat for Humanity in Middletown.
Her greatest loves in her life were her husband and son, her daughter-in-law, granddaughter, her extended family and her dogs and cats. She loved to laugh, read, garden, politics, righting a wrong, having a good argument, and basking in the sun by her pool.
Also predeceased by her parents, sister Deborah Cohen Oster, mother-in-law Gertrude Tyack, brother-in-law Michael Tyack, and nephew David Tyack
Survived by her loving son Max and his beloved wife Ali, cherished granddaughter Jamie Tyack, brothers-in-law Melvin Oster and William Tyack and sister in law Anne Tyack, nephews Steven, Howard and wife Lori, and Billy Tyack and wife Anna, and niece Suzanne Pfeiffer, grandnieces Rachel and Elizabeth, grandnephews Aaron, Jonathon, and Michael, cousins Judith Jaffe, Edward Jaffe and Marlene, Ellen Medow and Robert and her dearest friends from childhood, Linda Frank Robertson, Nanette Laven Garner, and Barbara Silverman Shapiro.
Visitation hours are from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 pm on Saturday, October 9, 2010 at Applebee-McPhillips Funeral Home, Inc., 130 Highland Avenue, Middletown, NY 10940. A Funeral Service will be held at 10 am on Sunday, October 10, 2010 at the funeral home. Burial will follow in Hillside Cemetery, Mulberry Street, Middletown, NY 10940.
Memorial contributions may be made to Pets Alive, Derby Road, Middletown, NY 10940 or Habitat for Humanity P.O. Box 2375
Middletown, NY 10940 of Middletown, NY
Ellen’s family thanks her dear friends here in Orange County who did so very much for her after the death of her husband and then her fight with cancer. Without these friends, the struggles would have been so much more difficult. According to Ellen, they made life livable and fun, not just an existence
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