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Hanna Kiep Clements died Jan. 17, 2020 in Lombard, IL with family by her side. She was 86. The daughter of Hanna Alves Kiep and Otto Carl Kiep, the German Consul General, she was born June 2, 1933 in a brownstone house in New York City. Her early years in New York, London, and Berlin were defined by her father’s career as a diplomat and then by the rise of Hitler and World War II. Her father’s anti-Nazi activities led to his arrest, imprisonment, and execution in 1944. Her brother Albrecht was also casualty of the war, leaving Hanna, her sister Hildegard, and her mother to make a life in post-war West Germany. Her mother took a diplomatic role in Washington, DC, and Hanna came to the US in 1950 to attend Wells College and then transferred to Barnard College in New York City, where she earned a degree in chemistry.
While at Barnard, Hanna met her husband, Bruce Thomas Clements, who was attending Columbia College. They married in 1954 and Hanna worked as a chemist at Pfizer Corporation, supporting Bruce during his studies at Union Theological Seminary. They spent a year in Germany and settled in Schenectady, New York, where Bruce served as pastor of Frieden’s United Church. In 1968 Hanna and Bruce moved with their four children to Windham, Connecticut, where Bruce taught at Eastern Connecticut State University and where they raised their family and became active members of the community, living, working, and serving for 42 years. Hanna was active at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, serving as Senior Warden and helping to found Isaiah 58 Ministries and the Covenant Soup Kitchen, which she later directed. Having experienced hunger and need in her early life, Hanna worked tirelessly to advocate for the poor and the homeless. She was a founding member of Windham Habitat for Humanity, led the Windham Homeless Coalition, worked with the Refuge, providing shelter for runaway teens, and helped found the Interfaith Sponsor Group for Vietnamese Refugees. She worked for many years helping families transition from homelessness to housing at the Windham Regional Community Council.
Hanna was politically active in the League of Women Voters, was elected to the Windham Zoning Board of Appeals, the Windham Democratic Town Committee and the Windham Board of Finance, and was elected and served as First Selectman in Windham from 1985-87. In all these roles, colleagues valued her calm, reasoned thoughtfulness, her sense of justice and fairness, her pragmatism, her toughness and her compassion.
Hanna was a present, loving and consistent mother. She was thrifty and could stretch Bruce’s modest salary to feed a family of six. She made beautiful things—a master knitter and needle worker, accomplished ceramicist, and batik artist. She sewed clothes and costumes and made her oldest daughter’s wedding dress. She typed all of Bruce’s novels and co-authored "Coming Home to a Place You've Never Been Before." Together, Hanna and Bruce hosted “Neighborhood”, an interview radio show on the Willimantic radio station, WILI.
Hanna was honored for her service by the town of Windham and the Connecticut State Legislature before leaving Connecticut and moving into a retirement community in Lombard, IL in the spring of 2011. She and Bruce enjoyed reading aloud, conversation, doing crossword puzzles, watching movies, spending time in their cottage in Michigan, and being with their children and grandchildren. Even as Hanna’s health was failing, her eyes lit up with love when she saw them.
Hanna leaves her husband of 65 years, Bruce Clements; three daughters, Ruth (John) Clements-Gottlieb, Martha Clements Brittell, and Hanna (Reece) Clements-Hart; seven grandchildren, Rachel, Otto, David, Molly, Madeline, Margot and Graham; step-grandchildren, Pablo and Jeff; great grandchild, Vienna; brother-in-law, Paul Eugene Clements; nephews, Nikolaus Rauch, Dr. Robert Rauch, and Wayne Clements; and niece, Ellen Clements Green. Hanna was predeceased by her parents, her brother, Albrecht Kiep, her sister, Hildegard Rauch, her son, Mark Clements and her son-in-law, David Brittell.
Memorial services have been cancelled due to the coronavirus. Memorial contributions may be made in Hanna’s name to American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102. www.afsc.org
