Justina M. "Sis" Ortlieb

Friends will be received at the funeral home Friday from 4 to 7pm.

A procession will form at the funeral home Saturday at 9:00am.

The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St Mary's Church at 10:00am.

Super Hero Justina M. Ortlieb, 91, resident of Kerhonkson since 1956, and formerly of Kingston, passed away on May 28, 2025 at Vassar Hospital after a brief illness surrounded by her children. Born in Kingston on October 29th, 1933, she was the daughter of Arthur L. Haber and Catherine Hallinan Haber. She was the second of eight children, Maryann, herself, Patricia, Susan, Judy, Cathy, Arthur, and Martin and is survived by Patricia, Susan, Cathy, Arthur, and Martin.

Justina, known as Sis to all who knew her, graduated Kingston High School in 1950, and New Paltz State Teachers College in 1954. Her lifetime of service began with teaching at Poughkeepsie Day School and Ellenville Elementary School before she and her husband John H. Ortlieb were married on June 19, 1955. They started their family soon after, and she and her husband Jack, worked diligently to provide every opportunity to their five children, Jack at Channel Master in Ellenville and Sis at Edson School in Kingston. An unconventional woman and teacher, Sis researched and utilized many techniques and developed many of her own to reach her special needs students and was far ahead of her time. Her record of success was among the best in the entire school district. A believer in broad experience and its impact on long term success, Sis was a believer in hands on, and outdoor education, as well as music in her teaching. She took the children on camping trips where they interacted with and learned about the plants and animals, and her yearly chicken egg incubation projects in which her students followed the development of chicks inside their shells by "candling" kept her students as well as others in the school engrossed. She brought her students to local nursing homes where students could develop relationships with residents and correspond by writing letters to their new friends and making periodic visits. Due to its success, Sis was asked to speak on "Intergenerational Programming" at Cornell University.

She was a member of the Ulster County Community Services Board and the Subcommittee for Persons with Developmental Disabilities. Sis was also a Charter Member of the Kerhonkson Accord First Aid Squad where she served for twenty five years and taught advanced First Aid to new members. She was once approached by a stranger who thanked her for saving his life by keeping him submerged in the bathtub while dressing his severely burned body with wet dressing, a technique not yet part of the standard treatment of the time. Sis was also a Communicant of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, a structure her husband helped build while he served on the Building Committee.

Home life was also busy as Sis and Jack raised five children, John (Jack) Jr, Joseph, Susan, Linda, and David. Ever concerned with providing the best nutrition with healthy food, Sis made sure to grow (and can) healthy vegetables, raise chickens for eggs, and acquire local organic grass fed beef. The kids also had dogs, cats, ducks, and ponies, to care for. All this and a full time Special Needs teacher with an hour and a half commute each day. Each year Sis would also use her calligraphy skills to ink diplomas for Edson graduates and make over 100 coffee cakes for family and friends for the holidays. Sis loved to travel taking the family on two vacations each summer while the children were young and continuing later with trips to all corners of the world, even learning to scuba on the Great Barrier Reef at the age of 67. Her adventurous spirit will be remembered by all who knew her.

Justina "Sis" Ortlieb is also survived by her children Dr. Joseph Ortlieb  and his husband Dennis Pearl, Susan Ortlieb Darmstadter, husband Kevin Darmstadter, Linda Ortlieb, David Ortlieb and partner Evan Ferrar, her grandchildren Brenna Darmstadter, Meagan Nelms and her husband Mark Nelms, as well as many nieces and nephews.