In Memory

Karen Lou Stein (Gelender)

April 20, 1949 - June 3, 2020

A resident of Castro Valley, CA, Karen Lou Gelender was born in 1949 in Paris, France where her parents, Herman D. and Charmion Kerr Stein, were supporting humanitarian efforts to reunite Holocaust survivors with their families. She grew up in Scarsdale, NY, and particularly loved spending time in the Adirondack Mountains among the trees and wildflowers.

At Shaker Heights High School, Karen was President of the Youth Council on Human Relations, and one of the leaders of the after-school discussions on race relations at Shaker in our senior year. She was also the Editor of Semanteme. She was also inducted representing the Class of 1967 into the Shaker Heights High Hall of Fame.

Karen's life was marked by her passion for teaching and social justice. She was a lifelong activist and community organizer, with her work beginning as a teenager in the 1960s when she traveled to the South to fight for racial justice and voting rights with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Deeply committed to building a more equitable world, Karen never hesitated to lend a helping hand or stand up against injustice. She carried this mission into the communities in which she lived and the classrooms in which she taught.

Karen began her teaching career at the street academies in Philadelphia and then later in Cleveland. From there she became the Director of the Cleveland Urban Learning Community (CULC), an alternative high school program of St. Ignatius, where she met her future husband Mark, a teaching colleague. Karen married Mark in a backyard ceremony in Shaker Heights, Ohio in 1977, and drawn by the progressive political and social movements of the time, the pair took a cross-country road trip to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area where they started a family. Karen's commitment to motherhood was unparalleled, and she worked to instill values in her children which echoed her own.

She believed in kindness, fairness, speaking up in the presence of wrongs, and Tikkun Olam (a call in Judaism to "repair the world"). 

As an enthusiastic teacher of more than 50 years, Karen was beloved by students of all ages. She was the director of the Tennyson Parent Nursery School (TPNS) in South Hayward for over ten years, and, in the last part of her life, she taught English Learners and students in the "Adults with Disabilities" program at the Castro Valley Adult School. Karen's dedication to her students and her desire and ability to respond to their needs by developing a meaningful curriculum made her a master teacher. Karen was a resilient force of life with a big, beautiful smile that lit up a room. Few who met her could forget her.

She is survived by her loving husband, Mark Gelender, sisters (Shoshana Bennett, Naomi Stein), adult children (Shayna, Jake, and Amanda Gelender), daughters-in-law (Clare LePell, Jill Dellich), her grandchild, Franklin Marley Gelender, and many relatives, friends, colleagues, and former students.

Donations in Karen's honor can be made to a memorial scholarship fund for graduating Castro Valley High School seniors working on racial and social justice. If you are interested in contributing, please contact karengelenderscholarship@gmail.com.