Delores Harding Lutz
Delores Harding Lutz, age 94, of Charlottesville, Virginia, passed away on Sunday morning, January 7, 2024 at the Dulles Health and Rehab Center in Herndon, Virginia.
Delores, also known as Emma or Susie, was born in Muncy, Pennsylvania on December 19, 1929. She was the daughter of Lee Harding and Maggie Diltz Harding. Delores grew up on the Harding farm in Muncy and graduated from Hughesville High School in 1948. She received her teaching degree from the State Teachers College in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania in 1953. She loved teaching and was proud to say she taught in three states. She started her teaching career in Huntingdon, PA at the William Smith School where she taught 7th grade until 1959.
In 1958, she met David S. Lutz from Huntingdon, recently discharged from the Air Force and the son of Sara Y. Lutz, one of Delores’ teaching friends. They were a perfect match—both loved books and history, both drove Mercury sedans and were both Lutheran. They married in 1959 in Ferndale, PA in a ceremony presided over by Dave’s uncle, the Reverend Lester Lutz. From there Dave and Delores moved to Charlottesville, Virginia where Dave started a job with Morton Frozen Foods (later DelMonte) and joined the Air National Guard.
In 1968, Dave was transferred by DelMonte to New York, so he and Delores moved to Central Valley, New York with their three children. There Delores resumed her teaching career in 1970 with the Monroe-Woodbury Central School District where she taught 3rd grade until they were transferred back to Charlottesville in 1974. In Charlottesville, Delores accepted a teaching position at the new Mary C. Greer Elementary School. She taught 5th grade there until she retired in 1995.
In retirement, both Delores and Dave enjoyed genealogy research and reading, and were active in Charlottesville’s William A Jones III chapter of the Air Force Association.
Delores was preceded in death by her parents and two brothers; Carl Harding and her twin brother, Paul Harding; and a sister, Jean Arthur. Her husband of 64 years preceded her in death by just a little over 3 weeks when he passed on December 14, 2023.
Delores is survived by a daughter and two sons; Ann Lutz McMullen and her husband, Stanley of Herndon, Virginia; David Paul Lutz and his wife Angelika Sweitzer of Alexandria, Virginia; and Eric Harding Lutz and his wife, Jodi of Ashburn, Virginia and four grandchildren; Savannah and Jonah McMullen, and Darby and Devin Lutz.
The family requests no visitation, flowers, or funeral at the home. Inurnment will be at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date with memorial services provided by the Air Force.
