Annetta Grace Darmitzel

Annetta Celeste Grace Darmitzel passed from this world on Tuesday, August 25th to be with her Lord and Father at the age of 75 and 8 days after a 18 month battle with stomach cancer. Annetta will be remembered as a loving wife, mother, grandmother, a passionate educator and loyal friend to many across Santa Fe and the US.

Annetta was born to Allie and Celeste Grace in 1951 at Ft Polk, Louisiana where her dad was stationed as a sergeant in the U.S. Army. Annetta spent her childhood in Kansas City, Missouri where her father was a public school principal and where she created life-long friendships, swam on swim teams, cheered on the cheer teams and worked as a lifeguard. Following in her father’s footsteps, she studied education at the Colorado Women’s College. She graduated a semester early in 1972 and began a 35 plus year career with a long term sub job as a brand new teacher in Kansas City. In January of 1976, she met Robert Darmitzel on a blind date and they were married on November 26 that same year in Kansas City. After Robert finished dental school, they moved to start their lives together in Santa Fe.

From 1978 to 2015, Annetta was a determined public school teacher in Santa Fe. She taught every grade level while working at Kearney, Wood Gormley and El Dorado primary schools. Whether it was teaching parallel lines to 6th graders, or reading to kindergardeners, she taught creatively and dutifully, committing herself to every student and partnering with families for each child to learn their best. For more than five decades, Annetta’s dedication to teaching was recognized by students, parents and grandparents whenever the family went out to eat or ran errands.

At home, Annetta was loyal and supportive to her family and instilled a duty to learning, growth and self-improvement. In the evenings, her sons, Stephen and David, learned to do homework across from her at the kitchen table where she sat crafting lesson plans and grading papers. During the summers, she shared her love of water by teaching her sons proper stroke technique and how to play in the water with sharks and minnows and bucking bronco rides. In her free time, Annetta supported the boys swimming by driving them across the city to Santa Fe Seals swim team practices, packing some of the largest sack lunches to be seen at Capshaw Middle or Santa Fe High, officiating as a stroke and turn judge for New Mexico Swimming and, later, by crossing the country to cheer them on as members of the University of Missouri varsity swim team.

Annetta believed deeply in education and new challenges as a way towards self growth and lived that by completing a Masters Degree in counseling from the College of Santa Fe in 2001. She began studying harp under Linda Larkin in 2011, the same year she became a grandmother. She constantly sought new skills and community, whether it was through playing handbells at First Presbyterian Church, practicing yoga in Santa Fe, Kansas City and Mumbai, India; or working hard with friends at spin classes at the gym.

Annetta had a passion for each day and especially when traveling. Annetta and Bob loved to visit the world and see the places in person that she had read about and taught for decades. Whether it was the colosseums of Greece, the markets of Turkey or the bustling cities of India, her brilliant smile always conveyed a sense of gratitude and humility to have experienced someplace new.

Annetta is survived by her husband, her two sons, two daughters in law (Kylie married to Stephen and Sarah married to David) and a legacy of students and swimmers with her grandsons Otto, Louis and Jude (15, 12 and 10 from David and Sarah) and Brayden and Callan (12 and 7 from Stephen and Kylie).

In lieu of flowers, loved ones are encouraged to donate to Doctors without Borders, Santa Fe Partners in Education or the St Vincent Hospital Foundation.