When Rita Segerman moved to Somerset House in Chevy Chase, one of the first things she told her family she would miss was not the apartment she was leaving behind, but the small talk at the elevator.
Her new first-floor unit had a garden terrace and easy access outside, which suited her love of flowers. But, as her daughter Fran Goldstein recalled, Segerman quickly made clear what mattered most to her.
“She said, ‘Oh, no, not at all. I miss the camaraderie of everyone at the elevator talking,’” said Goldstein, whose mother made small flower bouquets for neighbors.
That interest in other people — their lives, their stories and their needs — shaped Segerman’s long life, from her decades teaching in Montgomery County Public Schools to her leadership and volunteer work in the Jewish community, including at Adas Israel Congregation and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Segerman, of Chevy Chase, died peacefully on March 2 surrounded by her family. She was 96.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1929 to Frances and Herman Goldberg, she grew up in a Jewish household where Yiddish was part of daily life. Goldstein said Segerman and her mother spoke Yiddish together until her mother’s death.
Her father had come to the United States as a teenager with little money. He became a garment manufacturer in New York. The family prized education, modesty and persistence.
“They all valued hard work,” Goldstein said. “They had high values for education.”
Rita graduated in the first class of Forest Hills High School and later earned a degree in social work from Syracuse University. Returning to New York, she worked with unwed mothers and later in Jewish communal fundraising and outreach. She also pursued an advanced degree in education.
It was through her work that she met Bernard Segerman.
Family members often repeated the story of their first meeting. Rita agreed to meet him at a large community event so she would not feel obligated to spend an entire evening with him if the date went badly.
Instead, the evening turned into the start of a long marriage.
“My dad went home and told his mother, ‘I met the girl I’m going to marry,’” Charles Segerman said.
The couple wed in 1954. They moved from Long Island to the Washington area in the early 1960s after a relative asked Bernard Segerman to help with a real estate development project.
Within a few months of their move, that relative — who owned the business — died suddenly of a heart attack. Bernard Segerman remained in the company and learned the business with support from others in the community. He died in 2015 after 61 years of marriage.
In the Washington suburbs, Rita Segerman built the career for which many people first knew her: teaching.
She spent 23 years teaching in Montgomery County Public Schools, including 17 years at Rollingwood Elementary School, and later taught in the district’s gifted and talented program. Goldstein said her mother was known as a demanding teacher who also cared deeply about her students.
“A lot of people would say she was the best teacher I ever had, and probably one of the hardest,” Goldstein said. “But she never was judgmental or made anyone feel bad.”
Charles Segerman said his mother especially enjoyed watching children grow up in the community. She taught younger siblings after having taught their older brothers or sisters.
Even after retiring from the classroom, she continued helping children learn. Well into her later years, he said, she volunteered her time reading with students and working with children who needed extra support.
Jewish life remained central throughout her adulthood. The Segerman family were longtime members of Adas Israel Congregation, where she was active in the Sisterhood and participated in the congregation’s first adult bat mitzvah classes.
Goldstein said her mother also helped organize knitting projects at Somerset House that produced blankets, hats and other baby items for people in need through Adas Israel and the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center. Over the years, she also contributed needlework to projects, including embroidering a synagogue chuppah.
Another major focus of her volunteer life was the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Before the museum building opened, Segerman hosted fundraising meetings in her home to help support the creation of the institution. She later served for two decades as a docent, guiding visitors through the museum and helping them understand the history of the Holocaust.
“She felt like there was an obligation to teach,” Charles Segerman said. “And she was a teacher.”
For Segerman, he said, the museum offered an opportunity to help people confront the history of the Holocaust and understand its meaning beyond the Jewish community.
Goldstein said her mother especially valued conversations with visitors who had not previously learned much about the subject.
Her volunteer work extended beyond Jewish institutions. She was active with Washington Performing Arts, visiting schools and helping bring arts programming to students.
At Somerset House, she remained socially and intellectually engaged. Goldstein said she belonged to several book discussion groups simultaneously and often prepared pages of notes and questions.
That curiosity extended beyond books to the people around her. Friends and family described Segerman as warm and attentive.
“She was always really interested in people,” Goldstein said. “She would remember a conversation and ask how things turned out.”
In her final months, relatives, friends and neighbors continued visiting her apartment, often sharing stories or simply sitting with her.
After her death, Goldstein said, the family heard from scores of people who reached out to share memories.
“Everybody said the same thing,” she said. “Your mother was one of the nicest people I know.”
Ellen Braunstein is a freelance writer.
