LIME ROCK — Eleanor Anne Sternlof (née de Guise) of White Hollow Road passed away on April 25, 2025 at Geer Village in North Canaan, Connecticut. She was 94 and the loving wife of the late Paul William Sternlof, who died on August 12, 2005.
Eleanor was born July 14, 1930 in Lowell, Massachusetts as the eldest child of the late George and Vera (née Gale) de Guise. Eleanor graduated from Chelmsford High School in 1948 and from Clark University in 1954. She met Paul as a fellow student at Clark and they married in May 1954.
Eleanor worked for Mohawk Airlines while Paul earned his MBA in Hospital Administration at Yale University. In 1958 they moved to Baltimore, Maryland and started a family while Paul worked as Assistant Administrator at Baltimore General Hospital.
Their first two children, Karl and Kurt, were born in Baltimore. They moved to Sharon in 1962 when Paul became President of Sharon Hospital. Two more children followed, Mark and Erika, and the family settled on White Hollow Road in 1965.
Eleanor and Paul were together avid beekeepers, vegetable gardeners, brewers of mead and motorcycle enthusiasts. She was a skilled seamstress, doll maker, canner and general DIYer who learned carpentry taking adult-ed classes at Housatonic Valley Regional High School. In 1977, while her two middle boys were students there, Eleanor took a job in the Superintendent’s Office and quickly became notorious for riding her motorcycle to work. She retired in 1992.
In 1995, Eleanor and Paul bought a winter home on Fripp Island in South Carolina and made many new friends. She volunteered for years there as a teaching aide in the public schools and sang alto in the island choir. Eleanor moved back to White Hollow full time in June 2020 and finally to Geer Village in October 2021.
After Paul passed, Eleanor focused on fulfilling her lifelong dreams of world travel by visiting Peru, Cuba, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Finland, Hungary, Albania, Russia and more with a close-knit band of fellow adventurers. She delighted in telling stories of her travels, such as her tangle with a decrepit rope bridge in the Amazon and caravanning by camel in Egypt.
Eleanor is survived by her children, Karl Sternlof (Kerin Woods) of New London, Connecticut, Kurt Sternlof of Newton, Massachusetts, Mark Sternlof of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and Erika Sternlof of Bath, Maine; her grandchildren, Emma Sternlof (Michael Conlin) of Durham, North Carolina, Nora Sternlof of Chicago, Illinois and Erik Sternlof of Newton, Massachusetts; her great grandchild Brian Conlin and her sister Evelyn Webber of Rochester, New York.
Memorial activities will be announced at a later date. The Kenny Funeral Home has care of all arrangements.
