Helen Abramovic

BORN IN OHIO IN 1924, Helen Abramovic (whose maiden name was Bezek) was the daughter of a Slovenian immigrant mother and father. She was raised in the Slovenian-Italian Cleveland neighborhood of Collinwood, a working-class enclave located close to the Fisher Body GM Automobile Plant where her father worked as a welder.

At age 15, Helen’s life took a tragic turn that essentially ended her childhood. Six months after her beloved mother unexpectedly died due to complications from an appendectomy procedure, her father arrived home with a new wife, introducing the unfamiliar woman as “your new mother.” The new mother turned out to be an alcoholic, whose cruel and neglectful behavior forced Helen to assume the role of surrogate mother for her younger brother and sister.

Prompted by her deteriorating home life, and a desire to help the WWII effort à la Rosie the Riveter, Helen dropped out of high school at age 17 to enroll in an air traffic control training program in Texas. She then spent the war years as a member of air traffic control teams at airports in Fort Worth and Knoxville, TN.

After the war ended, Helen moved back to Ohio where she worked as a secretary for a local businessman in downtown Cleveland.

On a Sunday off from work, Helen met Emil Abramovic (the son of Slovenian-Croatian immigrants) at the SNPJ Farm, a dance hall and picnic ground established to celebrate Slovenian heritage. The two Slavs danced and drank that afternoon away, and by evening, Emil suggested that Helen accompany him back to Oregon where he had moved the year before to pursue a teaching career. Helen turned him down and he left town alone the next day. The two communicated via letters until the distant relationship faded away.

One year later, the two happened to meet again at the “Farm,” and after a repeat day of romance, Helen accepted her suitor’s second request to hit the road west. Emil, being a bohemian bachelor at the time, did not believe in marriage. But Helen, who was uprooting her life for a man essentially a stranger, insisted they tie the knot as a gesture of Emil’s commitment to the plan. They were wed by a justice of the peace in a small Indiana town en route to Oregon.

Transplanted to Portland, Helen moved into her husband’s humble houseboat at the moorage across from Oaks Amusement Park on the Willamette River. The following five “houseboat years” would prove to be the best time of her life, as she and Emil explored the natural wonders of Oregon, co-hosted summer geology camps (in eastern Oregon), and enjoyed the relaxation, scenery and wildlife that came with life on the river. Helen also earned her GED and enrolled to study at Portland State College during that period.

After the birth of their first child, Lisa, in 1958, Helen and Emil moved to a house away from the river over concerns that the baby could crawl into the drink and drown. In 1960, they produced a second child, a boy named Carl. Bearing most of the burden of child rearing, Helen worked as a full-time homemaker while Emil was away teaching.

In 1967 Emil began developing a proposal for an experimental public school in Portland. While still managing her domestic workload, Helen partnered with Emil as an adviser, editor and sole typist for what would become the finished proposal that led to the 1968 opening of the Metropolitan Learning Center (MLC) in Northwest Portland, a school that probably would not exist without her input, intelligence and hard work.

Over the following several years, Helen volunteered as a teacher at the school she helped create, being especially gifted at guiding students with learning difficulties to learn to read.

After moving on to become secretary-assistant to the dean of Reed College, Helen retired from work in 1982.

Her retirement years were as active as most people’s working lives, as she became a volunteer teacher at Brooklyn School, ran a student book sales exchange program, helped to raise two grandchildren, and traveled throughout the United States and Europe.

In 2018, Helen died peacefully after 94 years of a life dedicated to helping others and making the world a better place.

—Carl Abramovic, 2025

Emil, Helen, and students (click image for information)