Ellen Ahlgren, 90; launched charity to comfort ill babies

Mrs. Ahlgren, a retired teacher and mental health counselor, founded ABC Quilts of Northwood, N.H., and harnessed quilters' needles worldwide while raising awareness of AIDS prevention.

In almost 20 years, volunteer quilters ranging from preteens to senior citizens made more than 1 million cozy blankets for children living as far away as Moscow.

"It carries vibes of love and comfort; it helps the children feel better," Mrs. Ahlgren told the Miami Herald in 1991, of the "blankees" swaddling sick children in Florida hospitals that year.

Mrs. Ahlgren, of Concord, who was named New Hampshire Mother of the Year in 1992, died of pancreatic cancer April 18 at the Concord Regional Visiting Nurse Association's Hospice House in Concord, N.H. She was 90.

"She was a wonderful lady," said John T. Linville II of Wolfeboro, N.H., who began volunteering for ABC in 1999. "She created what ended up being a worldwide charity from her front room in Northwood."

Operating on a shoestring budget from donated space at a church, ABC Quilts could not raise enough money and had to shut down about three years ago, he said. Many of the group's quilters still make blankets for local hospitals. Volunteers made about 500 last year.

"We patched together the old network. They didn't want to stop. The kernel of Ellen's vision is still alive in New Hampshire," he said.

Mrs. Ahlgren, who raised five children, was born in Manchester, N.H., and later moved to Stoneham. Her father, Frank, was an insurance salesman and was a descendant of Harvard College president Josiah Quincy.

Mrs. Ahlgren studied in Maine at Nasson College in 1940, and was determined to be a career woman until Pearl Harbor changed her mind, according to an essay she wrote for a writing workshop.

She was dating her future husband, Clarence, and listening to Christmas carols when news of the 1941 bombing came over her parents' radio. "Clary" told her he would join the fight.

She wept and told him she was thinking about the words of poet Robert Browning to his wife: "I could not love thee dear so well, had I not loved honor more."

"We just hugged each other for a long time. What would come next? We just didn't know, but we did know that wherever we were, that we'd always be together," Mrs. Ahlgren wrote.

They were married 61 years. Clarence died in 2003.

Mrs. Ahlgren was known as an optimist, an organizer, and "a natural marketer," according to her family and friends.

"Nothing was impossible in her eyes," said her daughter, Janet Ahlgren of Winchester. "You just hadn't figured out a way yet."

When her children were young, Mrs. Ahlgren gave them lists of chores to accomplish each Saturday. "From an early age, we learned that you belonged by participating," Janet said. "The other thing that went with that was 'finish the job.' "

Mrs. Ahlgren went back to school in the late 1960s and earned her undergraduate degree in 1970 at the University of New Hampshire, followed by a master's degree in education there in 1979. She taught special education in New Hampshire public schools.

A student of psychology, Mrs. Ahlgren became friends with grief expert psychologist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in the '70s and helped found an early hospice in New Hampshire.

"She was persistent," said her friend Doris "Granny D" Haddock, 99, of Dublin, N.H. "When she got an idea, nothing would stop her. She just loved to be doing things, making things."

Haddock, a liberal activist who walked across America at age 90 to promote campaign finance reform, said her seven decades of friendship with Mrs. Ahlgren survived their political differences. Mrs. Ahlgren was more conservative and voted as an independent.

"She was always interested in what you were doing and gave good advice. She was a leader," Haddock said.

Mrs. Ahlgren was honored many times for her work with ABC Quilts. She received the Granite State Award from UNH for outstanding service and a "Hero" award from the Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

She wrote a kids' guide to making quilts for at-risk children and promoted the program as a method for teaching about personal responsibility.

"They're not just doing something with pipe cleaners," she said in one interview. "The project teaches students why the damage happened to the babies in the first place."

In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Ahlgren leaves another daughter, Leslie Homans of Belmont; sons David of Cardiff, Calif.; John of Portsmouth, N.H., and Stephen of Sanbornton, N.H.; seven grandchildren, and a great-grandson.

A memorial service is planned for 3 p.m. May 27 at Mrs. Ahlgren's former home at Havenwood-Heritage Heights retirement community in Concord, N.H. Another memorial will be held at 11 a.m. June 6 at Grace Episcopal Church in Concord. Burial will be in Lindenwood Cemetery in Stoneham, Mass.