Tracy Hegamaster Bieser

BIESER, Tracy Hegamaster, of Dayton, passed away on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. She was born on August 24, 1949 in Tarrytown, New York. She spent her early years living in New York, Virginia, Vermont and Toledo, Ohio. She graduated from Thomas A. DeVilbiss High School in Toledo, Sullins College in Bristol, Virginia and Ohio University. Her happiest early memories were being taken to museums, concerts, plays and ballet lessons, by her mother. Tracy also inherited her mother’s love of horses, dogs, nature and gardening. Although she had planned to be a writer, she wound up in the fashion retail business which brought her to Dayton in 1973 to work for the Rike-Kummler Company. On July 4th, 1974 her life changed for good, when a friend introduced her to Irv Bieser. They were married on February 14th, 1976. They were a loving team from the start and were married for 44 years.

Tracy never ran short of interests and activities. She rode and showed her horses for many years and also served as Joint-Master of the Miami Valley Hunt. Around the same time, she spent a year at the University of Dayton Law School and took flying lessons. She sat on a number of community boards including the Dayton Art Institute, where she and Irv co-chaired the Art Ball in 1980. Later, she chaired the Collections Committee for many years. Other boards include the Junior League of Dayton, the Boonshoft Museum, Carillon Historical Park, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Human Race Theatre Company, Friends of the Dayton Ballet, Friends of Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm, and the Women’s Board of Children’s Hospital. In 1995, she was voted one of Dayton’s Top Ten Women. She was also a past president of the Garden Club of Dayton and Woman’s Literary Club. She loved working on a project with a team of friends and was always excited by the “possibilities” of making things better in Dayton.

Many of the most exciting times in her life were spent traveling the world with adventuresome Irv. On one occasion, they spent the night in N’Djamena, Chad during a civil war. Fortunately, they were ushered to safety by Irv’s friends, serving there with A.I.D., who arranged their escape via dug-out canoe over the Chari River into Cameroon. On the home front, daughter Sidney, was the light of her life and being her mother brought tremendous joy and satisfaction. She also loved spending summers at the Columbus Beach Club in Indian River, Michigan. She deeply valued her family and friends, and always enjoyed a good walk and talk, or great food and wine, with them.

She is survived by her daughter, Sidney Albers Bieser, sister, Leslie Randolph Hegamaster (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware), Aunt, Lou Woellner (Sylvania, Ohio), cousins, Kendal Hegamaster Gladish and Kelley Hegamaster Bowen (Austin, Texas) and their families, and Chip Marvin and Courtenay Marvin-Adams (Jackson, Wyoming) and their families.

She was predeceased by her parents and husband, Irv Bieser.

She felt that she was an incredibly lucky woman and that she was grateful for the very blessed and interesting life she’d led.

A memorial service will be held at 1pm on Saturday, June 18, 2022 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 33 W. Dixon Ave, Oakwood, OH 45419. Inurnment at Woodland Cemetery in Dayton. A reception be held following the service at NCR Country Club at 2pm. In lieu of flowers please make a donation to the charity of your choice (no flowers please).