Every year, Jean Hetzel's second-graders made butter in class. She'd collect baby food jars and her students at High Point Elementary in Sandy Springs would fill the jars with heavy sweet cream and then shake them vigorously.
"It would turn into a ball of butter and they'd put it on crackers and eat it," said Mrs. Hetzel's daughter, Abby Howe of Watkinsville. "She was never afraid to do a lesson that took a lot of extra work. She was always up for something new in the classroom."
Over a 15-year career, the educator earned the respect of her supervisors and peers and was crowned High Point's 2008 teacher of the year.
"Everything about her was about being a teacher," High Point principal Lisa Nash said. "It was not a job to her. She was hard-working, dedicated and enthusiastic and it came naturally."
In 2001, Jean Armstrong Hetzel of Sandy Springs was diagnosed with breast cancer, but it had been in remission until about two years ago. She died Friday from complications of an infection at Northside Hospital. She was 52.
A memorial service will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church in Sandy Springs. Sandy Springs Chapel Funeral Directors handled arrangements.
In 1985, the Pittsburgh native moved to Atlanta with Jeff Howe, her husband of 27 years. They'd met in Boston while he attended culinary school and she earned a psychology degree from Simmons College. He was a local chef more than 20 years and now owns Mike's Dogs in Sandy Springs.
For six years, Mrs. Hetzel served as director of Creme de la Creme, a pre-school in Sandy Springs. She joined the High Point staff in 1996, where most days she was known to be one of the first to arrive on campus.
"She was teaching until a month ago," Mr. Howe said.
Abby Howe, her eldest daughter, teaches special needs students at Oconee County Primary School in Watkinsville. She praised her mother's influence.
"I just grew up with her teaching me how to take care of kids," Ms. Howe said. "There was nothing else I was going to do. I was going to be what she taught me to be and she was a great teacher."
When Ms. Howe was 10, her mother made the child a spider costume out of felt, ribbons and pantyhose. It was based on a character from the Eric Carle book, "The Very Busy Spider."
Last October, Mrs. Hetzel got the chance to visit her daughter's classroom while her students were reading the book.
"I wore the costume," her daughter said, "and she was there to see me."
Survivors other than her daughter and husband include another daughter, Nancy Howe of Sandy Springs; two sisters Emily Shulman of Pittsburgh and Jennifer Gear of Boston; a brother, Fred Hetzel, and her mother, Nancy Hetzel, both of Pittsburgh.
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