Helen L. Regan

HELEN L. REGAN (nee Taylor), 98 originally of Chicago, Illinois and most recently of Newark, Delaware passed away on May 28, 2024, from natural causes.

Helen was born on July 11, 1925 to Ray Todd Taylor and May Caroline (Bonning) Taylor  in Chicago, Illinois. After graduating from South Shore High School in 1943, she met Willard Francis (“Peck”) Regan in Chicago.  The couple tied the knot on November 17, 1945.  Helen and “Peck”  went on to build a beautiful family with three children:  Frances Rae, Scott Howard and Dean Louis.

Helen was a scholar at heart, earning her Bachelors of Science in Education (General Education Major) in 1970 and then her Masters of Science in Education (School Librarianship Major) in 1973 from Chicago State University.  She held various jobs throughout her early life, but her heart belonged to her roles as the Librarian of the Palos Heights Public Library and a beloved teacher at Arbor Park Middle School, where she made a difference from 1970 to 1992.

As a teacher, Helen was a steadfast defender of teacher rights.  To that end, Helen was a charter member and officer of the Arbor Park Federation of Teachers.

Retirement in 1992 didn’t slow Helen down. She dedicated her time to family and church, traveled the world (with stamps in her passport from China, Russia, Hong Kong, India, and Vietnam to name a few), played countless games of bridge, and volunteered at The Goodman Theater. She continued her long-standing tradition of meeting with “The Club,” her high school friends, for decades. Helen was an avid reader, meticulously keeping track of the 569 books she devoured since 1993, with “Elizabeth the Queen” by Sally Bedell Smith being her last literary conquest.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents, Ray and May, her sister Evelyn, and her husband Willard Regan. She leaves behind her children, Frances Rae Regan, Scott Howard Regan (Marcia), and Dean Louis Regan (Francis McKenna), as well as her cherished grandchildren, Ami and Beth, and her five great grandchildren.

In Helen’s “To My Family and Friends” she requests:  “In lieu of flowers please take a teacher out to lunch or dinner as long as your memory of me lasts. If this is not to your choosing, have a tree planted somewhere.”

And Helen’s closing thoughts:  “Please do not mourn.  If my experience with you has been a blessing, be grateful for it. If my experience with you has not blessed us both – be glad it’s over.  In all confidence that death is an imposition that we all must overcome sooner or later, I leave you, my loved one; I have been blessed by my family and friends.  Love is for the living.”

Private Celebration of Life services will be held in Downers Grove, Illinois, and Newark, Delaware. In lieu of flowers, Helen requests that you “please take a teacher out to lunch or dinner as long as your memory of me lasts. If this is not of your choosing, have a tree planted somewhere”.