Ellen Margarete Hamilton

Ellen Crowder Hamilton , 78, of Maineville, Ohio, passed away Thursday, September 15, 2022 at the Christian Village rehabilitation facility in Mason, Ohio.

Ellen was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to James Monroe Crowder and Elsie Robertson Crowder. Ellen was raised in Norwood, Ohio, a Cincinnati suburb, and was graduated from Norwood High School.

She worked at Procter & Gamble before marrying William K. “Bill” Hamilton in 1966 and moving to Akron, Ohio, where she worked for B.F. Goodrich.

In 1969, Ellen and Bill moved to Toledo where she enrolled at the University of Toledo. In 10 years, she received her bachelor’s degree in special education summa cum laude while also giving birth to the couple’s two children, Diann and Philip.

Ellen and her husband were for many years members of Collingwood Presbyterian Church in Toledo, Ohio, where their children were baptized.

Ellen taught special education at Union Elementary School in Maumee, Ohio, before going back into business and learning to operate the relatively new device known as a personal computer. She soon combined her education degree and business experience in teaching computer software to adults at the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University and several local businesses. She loved helping people learn to use computers and continued that work for 20 years before retiring.

She loved traveling and visited most of the U.S. states and several provinces in Canada. International travel included Austria, Czech Republic, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Scotland and Switzerland. A favorite destination was Zihuatanejo, Mexico, where she vacationed annually from 2008 through this year.

An art history course at UT sparked an interest in art that became a focal point in her life. She and her husband joined the Toledo Museum of Art shortly after moving to the city and were regular fixtures at exhibition openings and art walks. An exhibition of glass art in 2016 at TMA (Hot Spot: Contemporary Glass from Private Collections) borrowed six sculptures from the Hamilton collection.

Ellen was preceded in death by her parents, her sisters Phyllis Koger White and Dorothy Glaser of Cincinnati, and a niece, Debbie Koger Walker. She is survived by her loving husband; daughter Diann (Richard) Shafer of Mason, Ohio; son Philip J. Hamilton of Telluride, Colo.; step-granddaughter Kaitlyn (Brayden) Grimsley, of Crittenden, Ky., and step-grandson Brandon Shafer of Independence, Ky., three nieces, four nephews, and their children and grandchildren.

Visitation will be held at the Mueller Funeral Home, 6791 Tylersville Road, Mason, Ohio, at 10 a.m. Monday, September 19, 2022. A funeral service will begin at 11 a.m. at the funeral home. A reception for friends and relatives will follow at the funeral home. Ellen’s body will be cremated and her ashes scattered to the winds during the family’s next trip to the Bay of Zihuatanejo.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Toledo Museum of Art.