Rebecca Worthington Groff

November 18, 1923 - January 24, 2021

Rebecca Worthington "Becky" Groff died peacefully the morning of January 24, 2021, at The Retreat at Berryville, under hospice care and inside the embrace of her home of the last two years. She was 97.

Becky was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. After high school, she worked and attended George Washington University, completing an associate's degree there. Then she met Reginald Carter Groff, a young seminarian at Virginia Theological Seminary, which is also where they were married. Thus began her first career as Episcopal clergy wife and mother of four. She loved that job and put everything she had into it.

In her late forties, Becky returned to college, an effort that culminated in a master's degree and led to her second career as a guidance counselor at the new Loudoun Campus of Northern Virginia Community College. She loved that job and put everything she had into that one too.

In retirement, Becky continued and expanded her lifelong habit of creating and improving. She traveled, volunteered, learned, cared, and tended. She added new handy skills to her personal toolbox as well―among them chair caning, furniture upholstering, and stained-glass making.

About Becky, the family archive produced a letter written in 1939 by Becky's high school principal to her father. In it, the principal states the object of the letter is to acknowledge and commend what he had discovered upon review of student report cards, which was that 25 of his rising class of 1940 students achieved straight As, emphasizing "in every subject," and so he was writing to each student's parents. His second object was to add the caveat that he certainly hoped such an extraordinary effort and result was not accomplished at the expense of his students' "health and happiness" due to excessive parental pressure. Becky's family are well-acquainted with her characteristic independence, determination, and commitment and find it entirely unsurprising, perhaps unlike her high school principal, that she revealed her character so strongly at age 16.

Rebecca Worthington Groff lived a long and satisfying life of purpose and meaning and wished the  same for all she loved, knew, and helped along the way. She is survived by a daughter, five grandchildren, and a great granddaughter.

There will be no public visitation or service. Instead of flowers, consider donating to Loudoun Hunger Relief, one of Becky's favorite causes during her active retirement years and an apt one to support during these current difficult days for so many.