Norma Hassinger made her first trip to the Republic of Georgia in 1989 as a member of the Atlanta Friendship Force. Born in England, she already was an experienced globetrotter at that point, thanks in part to her husband Jack’s U.S. Navy career.
But there was something special about that Georgia on the other side of the world. She and the onetime Soviet republic really hit it off.
All told, she traveled to the Republic of Georgia more than 30 times, but she was not just a tourist. After her first visit, she began collecting infant and children’s wear to send to Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital. Then she started making appeals to address Georgia’s public health shortages.
As a measure of her success over the years, at a 2003 Friendship Force gathering in Budapest, Hungary, she received the organization’s International Award for Excellence for gathering nearly $2.5 million worth of medical supplies and equipment for Georgia.
“Norma would organize two shipments a year,” said retired Georgia National Guard Gen. Tom McCullough of Powder Springs, who assisted in the aid effort.
“She would hear of things like X-ray machines that were about to be replaced with newer devices and arrange to have the used equipment sent to Georgia through a State Department program,” he said. “She had a passion for helping children and sick people and a boundless energy for carrying it out.”
Norma Hassinger, 85, died Wednesday at her Marietta residence of complications of Alzheimer's disease. Her funeral is 11 a.m. Monday at H. M. Patterson & Son, Canton Hill Chapel, with interment Tuesday afternoon at Oglethorpe Memorial Gardens on St. Simons Island.
She was as committed to helping Georgians who came here as those in their homeland. In 1996 she became the Atlanta guide for Georgia’s Olympic committee president. She also helped 16 Georgian students earn scholarships to study in the United States.
One of these, Andrew Razmadze of Vinings, said she not only helped make it possible for him to attend schools here, she introduced him to her circle of friends and also invited him to the Hassingers’ home for holidays. “She was a true benefactor and expected nothing for her generosity,” he said.
People of Georgia have been appreciative as well. In 2002, they opened a clinic called the Norma Hassinger Wellness Center for Women and Children. A mammography facility at the Cancer Institute of Tbilisi also bears her name.
For her part, she told an Atlanta Journal-Constitution interviewer in 2003, “I have grown to love their country and feel sure one day they will not need my help.”
Survivors include her husband of 61 years, Jack Hassinger Sr.; two daughters, Sandra Hassinger and Susan Kirtadze, both of Marietta; a son, Jack Hassinger Jr. of Fredericksburg, Va.; three sisters, Evelyn Owens and Maureen Goodwin, both of Dunston, England, and Joan Leadbitter of Bahrain; eight grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson.
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