Gertrud Obit

From The Berkshire Eagle, May 2, 1977:

Dr. Bondy dies at 87; was co founder of school

LENOX — Gertrud Bondy, who with her husband, Max, founded the former Windsor Mountain School here, died Saturday in a nursing home in Franklin, Mich. She was 87. For the past year, she had lived with her daughter, Anne Marie Roper, who operates a school for gifted children with her husband in Michigan. A psyciatrist and student of Sigmund Freud, Dr. Bondy was said to be one of the first women doctors in Europe. She earned her medical degree at Erlangen University in Germany in 1922.

Born in Prague, she married Max Bondy while still a medical student.They started a school in Europe in 1919 and moved it three times to locations in Germany and Switzerland. When the Nazis took over Germany, they moved to America and opened a school in Vermont. In 1943, they opened the Windsor Mountain School here off West Street and operated it together until 1951, when Max Bondy died at the age of 58. Dr. Bondy continued to operate the Lenox school with her ‘bearing and intellectual in conversation, yet she radiates warmth and gentleness.” During that interview, Dr. Bondy recalled that her relationship with the famous psychiatristFreud “was that of master and student, but I met him several times later in life at conventions, and I had a summer home near his summer home.” She and her husband operated a European coeducational school, which was considered revolutionary for that period. Even after turning over administration of Windsor Mountain School to her son and daughter-in-law after the death of her husband, she continued to counsel students. Besides her daughter, she leaves a son, Heinz Bondy of Wellesley, who is special assistant to the chancellor of theUniversity of Massachusetts campus in Boston. He is also director of the school’s alumni association. She also leaves eight grandchildren. Another daughter, Ulla, died several years ago.A memorial service will be held Saturday at 3:30 at the formerWindsor Mountain library on what is now part of the Hoiliston Junior College campus.