Hazel A. Trebilcock
Hazel A. (Paulic) Trebilcock was born on July 31, 1911, the first of 6 children of immigrant Slovenian parents, Frank and Josefina (Sajne) Paulic, the only ones in their respective families to come to the United States.
A teacher from the beginning, she helped her parents learn English as she learned it at the one room schoolhouse in Ralph, Michigan. The family had a small farm and she and her sisters and brothers were valuable helpers as soon as they could be. Hazel remembered going under the mules to buckle their harnesses with her sister Kristina when they were small enough to almost stand beneath them. When Hazel graduated from 8th grade at 12, she became an au pair for a family in Escanaba in order to continue to go to school. She graduated before 16 and by 18, also by working as an au pair, graduated with a lifetime teaching certificate from Northern Normal College in Marquette, Michigan.
She then began a career that she would follow with dedication until her retirement in her 60’s. Her first 7 teaching years were spent at Ironwood Michigan. She enjoyed her work and she met the sister of a certain Fred Trebilcock, whom she would marry in 1936 and spend 51 happy years as his wife and friend. They moved to Lansing Michigan in the heyday of car production where Fred was a tool and die maker and Hazel began as a permanent sub (married) for a woman who lost her job as a teacher to be married!
At this time the school system decided to change its policy of employing only unmarried women and she was the first permanent married teacher in the Lansing Public School system. Although she never had a child of her own, Hazel enjoyed children and was a cherished teacher in return.
A project that went beyond her teaching years was to have her 5th grade class write to famous authors, such as Laura Ingalls Wilder, to ask about their lives. Amazingly they wrote back, by hand or typed. These letters are now archived at the Lansing Public Library for all to enjoy. Hazel spent the end of her career as Principal of Bingham School.
Hazel had many interests throughout life, including golf with Fred, going with Fred to the U.P. to see Ma and Pa, bridge and her bridge friends, needlepoint, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church across from the Capitol, the B&P Women’s guild, Sparrow Hospital Gift Shop, the cabin at Duck Lake, the U Club, and her extended circle of family, friends, former students and fellow teachers who remembered and cared about her, and with whom she always kept in touch through letters and epic phone conversations.
After Fred passed away, Hazel, at 76, became a world traveler and made it to every continent except Australia before age slowed her down. She loved a good family reunion, especially for her birthday (!), and threw parties for her 80th, 90th, 96th and 100th years.
She established the Fred T. and Hazel P. Trebilcock Scholarship in 1996 to honor the memory of her late husband and to support students in education programs at Lansing Community College.