The Helen Polioudakis Siedel Collection

The Helen Polioudakis Siedel Collection

Helen Gloria Polioudakis Siedel (1926 - 2017) a lifelong resident of Chicopee, Massachusetts

This digital collection includes photographs, documents, programs, newspaper clippings and other ephemera concerning Helen Gloria Polioudakis Siedel, a lifelong resident of Chicopee, Massachusetts. The collection items mostly relate to her education in Chicopee, work as a City of Chicopee municipal clerk and adult life in Chicopee. Educational materials include report cards, scrapbook pages in her 1944 yearbook, studio photos of friends/schoolmates and diplomas. Work related items include shorthand items, clerical management training manual, Boy Scouts certificate of appreciation and a framed dried flower gift from Mayor Robert F. Kumor Jr.

Biographical Note:
An only child, Helen Gloria Polioudakis was born in 1926 to immigrant parents: Gregory Polioudakis of Crete, Greece and Anna Francis Dubiel of Poland. She attended Chicopee Junior High School and Chicopee High School graduating with the Class of 1944. Her father worked at Gilbert and Barker Manufacturing Co. in West Springfield for over 30 years.
Helen’s childhood homes in Chicopee were in multi-family homes on Front Street, Captain Mac Street and Hampden Street that her parents rented. Around 1943, her parents purchased a two-family house at 19 Mellen Street, which she later owned, and continued to live there until her death on December 19, 2017.
Helen was a member of the Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church and for many years, as a young adult, active with the Chicopee Falls Chapter of the Greek Orthodox Youth of America and the Greek Ladies Society. Numerous times she served as committee chair and an officer including President.
After graduation, Helen was a clerk at Steiger’s Department Store on Main Street in Springfield. That followed with more than a dozen years as a mail clerk and comptometer operator for Westinghouse Electric Corporation in East Springfield. In 1960, Helen accepted a position as a certified clerk and typist with the Chicopee Civil Defense Department where she worked for 10 years in City Hall. Helen was promoted to Assistant to the Director serving David J. Hopkins, Fred St. John and Jeremiah J. Falvey. In 1970, she transferred to the Parks and Recreation Department and for an additional fifteen years worked with Directors Armand Fortin and Roger A. LaPlante. Helen was also an active member of the Chicopee Municipal Employees Association.
Helen married John Benny Siedel on June 11, 1983. He was also of Chicopee and a Chicopee municipal worker. After serving in the Marines during WWII, he worked 30 years for the Chicopee Sanitation Department where for many years he was Supervisor. They did not have any children.
Helen Polioudakis Siedel retired in 1985 as a 25 year Chicopee Municipal employee. After retirement Helen helped organize the Chicopee Administrative Retired Employee Club and was President of the Chicopee Over 60 Club. She passed away on December 19, 2017 at the age of 91

The collection was processed and arranged by Christine Gray-Mullen, Chicopee Public Library Archives Intern.

This collection was donated by Kathy Siedel Sena, Helen’s step-daughter, on June 5, 2018.

Chicopee Archives Online

1938-2022, bulk 1938-1980

Christine Gray-Mullen - CPL/Simmons University Archives Intern;
Charles Abel - CPL Local History Reference Librarian

Photographs; Documents;

3 Boxes; 2 folders

CPL-HelenPS-Education;
CPL-HelenPS-Classof1944;
CPL-HelenPS-Work;
CPL-HelenPS-Residence;