Percas, Anna 1894-1980

PERCAS, CAMENEVSKI, BABENCO, PONSETI

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes
Date: 7/11/2014 at 15:26:19

The Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register
April 21, 1980

ANNA PERCAS SERVICES SET

Anna Percas, 85. the widow of Nicolas Percas, former head of the Department of Classical Languages at Grinnell College, died Wednesday afternoon, April 17, at Cookson's Home in West Branch. She had moved to West Branch two years ago from Grinnell to be near her daugher, Mrs. Helena Percas Ponseti of Iowa City.

Memorial services will be conducted at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Herrick Chapel, with the Rev. Dennis Haas, chaplain of Grinnell College, officiating. Organist will be Elbert Smith. Following cremation, her ashes will be buried at Hazelwood Cemetery. Should friends desire, memorials may be made to Grinnell College and left at the Smith Funeral Home.

The daughter of Isidor and Anna Camenevski Babenco, she was born May 15, 1894, in Ukrania. As a child, she moved with her family to Paris, France, where she received her education.

She was married to Nicholas Percas in 1912. The couple lived in Spain where her husband taught at the University of Valencia and the Institute Blasco Ibanez. They later moved to Venezuela, where he served as director of the Institute de Idiomas in Caracas.

The couple came to the U.S. in 1941, where her husband served as lecturer at Rockford (Ill.) College and as professor of Spanish at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. The couple came to Grinnell in 1947.

Mrs. Percas was a teacher of foreign languages in Spain and the U.S. for a number of years and had attended classes at Rockford College in English and drama.

She is survived by her daughter, Mrs. Ignacio V. (Helena) Ponseti of 110 Oak Ridge Ave., Iowa City. She was preceded in death by her husband in 1965 and her parents.