Helga Maria Buckvar

Helga Maria Buckvar, age 74, of Cupertino, California, died Thursday, August 20, 2009 at her home.

A funeral service will be at 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at Hull & Hull Chapel. Interment will follow at Hawthorne Memorial Gardens. Hull & Hull Funeral Directors are in charge of arrangements.

She was born Helga Maria Mirr August 1, 1935 in Berlin, Germany the eldest of four children of Meta Broschinski and Franz Mirr. Helga completed her education in Germany. She met her first husband, Don Foster while he was serving in the United States Army in Berlin. In 1955 at the Berlin Justice of the Peace, they were married and later had two daughters, Susan in Berlin and Victoria in Eugene, Oregon. In 1956 they immigrated to the United States. After a divorce, Helga worked as a chassis builder/assembler at Applied Technology in Sunnyvale, California for three years. During that time she met Bernard Buckvar at the Stardust Lounge in Sunnyvale. After dating for a year, they were married on July 5, 1969 at the Temple Emanuel in San Jose, California. Their son Owen was born June 24, 1970 in Mountain View, California. She resided in Cupertino for the past 40 years.

Helga volunteered as a pink lady at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View for a year. She then helped out at a mental health clinic as a receptionist for a year.

Helga’s favorite thing to do was go dancing. She also enjoyed raising fresh vegetables in her garden. She had a great love for animals and over the years she loved and took care of over a dozen cats. At one time, Helga & Bernard raised parakeets and sold them to a local pet store.

In addition to her husband, Bernard Buckvar of Cupertino, California; she is survived by a son, Owen H. Buckvar of Cupertino, California; and two daughters, Victoria L. Skinner of Eugene, Oregon and Susan N. Pierce of Grants Pass, Oregon; a sister, Marianne Zimmer of Berlin, Germany; two brothers, Bernard Mirr of Berlin, Germany and Werner Mirr of Koln, Germany; 11 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.