Harriet V. ‘Dee’ Schuette
Educator, co-founder of Harford County Cultural Arts Board was active in local choruses, League of Women Voters
Harriet V. “Dee” Schuette, a retired longtime nursery school teacher who was a co-founder of the Harford County Cultural Arts Board, died of complications from dementia May 4 at her Baldwin home. She was 83.
“Dee changed many, many lives and taught generations of students,” said Pat Schwartz, a retired Trinity Church Day School educator. “She always had a big smile and was so comforting to the parents.
Ellen Jo Lipsinger taught at the school for 25 years before retiring in the 1990s.
“She was particularly talented musicwise and art-wise,” Ms. Lipsinger said. “She was also warm and caring, and everyone loved her. She was the nicest person you’d ever want to meet, and it was a pleasure working with her.”
Harriet Washburn Volley, daughter of Leon James Volley, a businessman, and Mary Frances Volley, a homemaker, was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Northwood.
After graduating in 1957 from Eastern High School, where she was a straight-A student, class president and thespian, she earned a bachelor’s degree in 1961 in religion from Duke University.
After teaching first grade in Baltimore City Public Schools, Mrs. Schuette joined the faculty of Trinity Church Day School on Manor Road in Glen Arm in 1966.
“We taught 3-year-olds, both boys and girls, and we only had 10 children because our rooms were small,” Ms. Lipsinger said. “And her room was always beautifully decorated.”
Ms. Schwartz recalled her early days at the school when Mrs. Schuette would lend support.
“I was new and sometimes I’d get nervous, and because our classrooms were across the hall, I’d look over and she’d give me a big smile of encouragement,” Ms. Schwartz said.
“She also had a beautiful singing voice and sang in her church choir,” she said. “She was more like a grandmother and a very special lady.”
Said Ms. Lipsinger: “The children so loved her, and when they were grown, they’d still come back to see her.”
During her tenure at Trinity, Mrs. Schuette experienced several serious health challenges.
“Dee suffered from breast cancer and shingles, but she bounced right back, and we knew she’d be back. She did, and carried right on,” Ms. Schwartz said. “It was so inspirational.”
Ms. Schwartz recalled when the school sold pizza kits to raise funds.
“She brought them to my house, but I wasn’t home and she went around the house looking but all of the doors and windows were locked except for a sliding door,” Ms. Schwartz said.
“And that’s how she got into the house. She stepped over our security dog, who didn’t move, but the cat did hiss,” she said. “She was going to deliver my pizzas, and she wasn’t about to take them back to her home. She was one determined woman.”
Mrs. Schuette retired in 2010.
Her civic interests were extensive. In 1973, she and Sara Margaret Hodge co-founded the Harford County Cultural Arts Board, a group appointed by the government that advocates for the arts.
She was a member of and held various offices with the Harford Choral Society, Bel Air Community Chorus and League of Women Voters. She also had been chairwoman of the Harford County Permanent Nominating Caucus.
Mrs. Schuette was PTA president at Youth’s Benefit Elementary School and Fallston High School, whose yearbook was dedicated to her one year, family members said.
She also had been a guide at Baltimore Symphony Associates Decorators’ Show House events.
Mrs. Schuette for decades designed and executed her annual pen-and-ink Christmas cards. She also painted public event posters and cartoon figures, which were displayed throughout Trinity.
Mrs. Schuette was also a quilter and puppeteer.
“We were both Cromwell Valley Park guides,” Ms. Schwartz said. “In the fall, we would do the pumpkin and cider field trip and in the spring, pointing out the various insects. And Dee always brought along her puppets and the children loved that.”
Mrs. Schuette donated her body to the Maryland State Anatomy Board.
She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Bel Air at 224 N. Main St., where a memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. June 17.
Mrs. Schuette is survived by her husband of 61 years, Robert W. Schuette, a retired AAI Corp. marketing manager; two daughters, Amy Beth Zeidler of Phoenix in Baltimore County and Rebecca Lynn Eberling of Freeland; a brother, David Carlton Volley of Owings Mills; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.