Lucile Elizabeth Grieser, age 96 years, of Archbold, OH, passed away April 30, 2018 at Fairlawn Haven.  She was born July 23, 1921, on the Grieser home place at Wauseon, OH. She was the seventh child of Daniel Jacob and Rosa Dinah (Beck) Grieser. Lucile accepted Christ as her personal Savior and was a member of West Clinton Mennonite Church.

Lucile's first two years of school were in the one-room country school, Clinton Center, which was about a mile and a half from the Grieser home. She attended Pettisville School when it opened in 1929 and graduated in 1939. Being Valedictorian, she received a one-year free subscription to Readers' Digest. After she started working, she purchased a $25 life-time subscription to Readers' Digest and was still receiving it at the time of her death.

When Lucile was twelve she had yellow jaundice and had to stay in bed for some time. This is when she learned to crochet. Before her sophomore year, she decided she didn't want to finish high school but after spending six weeks at home and having a visit from C.P. Weber, the County Superintendent, she changed her mind. In her senior year, they had tuberculosis tests at school and she had a reaction so had to be checked further. Her tonsils were draining so when school was out for the year she had a tonsillectomy.

Because of her health problems, her folks decided to allow Lucile to attend Goshen College which she attended 1939-1940. She received a secretarial certificate in 1940 and worked several jobs in the area until November when she started working at the Archbold Ladder Company starting out in the factory and being transferred to the office in 1941. She worked there until her retirement in 1990 which by that time had gone under new ownership in 1973.

Lucile also loved to travel having visited all states except Alaska and Hawaii. In 1974, the four single girls driving a new Dodge visited all the nieces and nephews in the eastern part of the country. In 1978 she took two weeks to visit Marv and Estelle in Florida. On the return trip, they went to Texas by way of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, which completed her list of visiting all states in the continental United States. In 1980 she, sister Dorothy and friend Louetta Miller traveled to Europe by themselves. They met Jonathon Grieser who was studying in Marburg, Germany. He squeezed them into the back seat of a VW and took them to the Frankfurt railroad station where they used rail passes to visit Germany, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Sweden and The Netherlands before returning to Marburg.

Lucile spent many summers teaching Vacation Bible School, first at West Clinton's church plant in Holland, OH and then later at their church plant in southern OH where her brother Chauncy was pastor. She was West Clinton's first woman treasurer. Lucile become involved in volunteer work at Fairlawn Haven (working in the dining room about once a month) and was asked to be treasurer of the Auxiliary. She also volunteered at Fulton County Health Center, Wauseon and Care & Share, Archbold; and was an active member of the Fulton County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society.

In 1994 Lucile and sister Dorothy moved into a duplex on the Fairlawn Haven Campus. Dorothy and then later, Lucile moved into the nursing home on the Campus.

Lucile is survived by sisters-in-law Dorothy Grieser and Estelle Grieser of Archbold, OH. She also is survived by many nephews and nieces as well as their children and grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, brothers Orland, Cletus (Luella), Ivan (Kathryn), Chauncy (Ilva), Dale and Marvin as well as sisters, Dorothy, Florence, Arlene, and Doris (Wesley Liechty).

Lucile's body was gifted to University of Toledo Medical Center. Memorials may be given to Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) or Donor's Choice and be sent %Jo Ann Liechty, 224 Dogwood Court, Archbold, OH  43502. A memorial service will be held in the fall. Short Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.