Esther Tillman

Memorials may be made to Donor's Choice. TILLMAN, Esther, Bridgeton, MO, Fortified with the Sacraments of Holy Mother Church, Monday, January 29, 2007 age 95; Beloved wife and cherished mother, grandmother and great grandmother, cousin and friend. Professor of Modern Languages at St. Louis University until retirement in 1979. After graduating from the old Harris Teachers College, she taught for a while at the International Language Institute recruiting classes of adult immigrant women from the various ethnic neighborhoods in St. Louis and teaching them at the neighboring public school. While vacationing one summer in Asheville, North Carolina, she made the acquaintance of a group of French religious women who conducted an educational institution (from primary school to college) and she was invited to teach Latin and French there. She readily accepted the opportunity to live and work with native French speaking women. Returning to St. Louis, she married John Vincent Tillman in 1938. She taught part-time for the next several years at the old Maryville College in south St. Louis and at Villa Duchesne while starting to raise her family. It was in the early 1950s that she joined the faculty of St. Louis University, first in the evening division, and then full time. There she pioneered Applied Linguistics and also taught language and literature in French and German. She coordinated the Catholic high schools’ programs in French for students applying for College credit in the “1818 Program,” and served on accreditation boards for Catholic and public high schools in St. Louis.