LITCHFIELD – Josephine B. Reichel, a resident of Litchfield for the past 60 years, passed away peacefully in her home on July 12, at 89.

She was born in New York City on Oct. 14, 1915, the daughter of Captain George O. and Frances O’Neil Burpeau. The Burpeau family summered at their cottages on Lake Efner in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, where she had many childhood friends.

She moved to Litchfield in 1945, after marrying Alvin H. Reichel of Lewiston, who died in July 1958 after a long battle with a kidney illness.

She taught at many area grade schools including Litchfield Academy in Litchfield, Farwell and Montello Schools in Lewiston, and Central Street School in Gardiner. She was also an instructor at the University of Maine Systems in Augusta, Rockland, Fryeburg and Orono.

She graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., in 1936 with a B.S. and later earned a B.A., master’s degree and certificate of advanced study in education from the University of Maine.

She was very interested in the natural sciences, and co-authored and illustrated many scientific identification manuals and scholastic text books.

She was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting, fishing, skiing and kayaking. She loved the Maine woods – the birds, trees, flowers and mushrooms. This love of nature was reflected in her many paintings.

She is survived by her four daughters, Georgette Beaule Syster and her husband, Daniel Syster, of Penn Run, Pa., Martha Crocker Tyler and her husband, Kenneth Tyler, of Litchfield, Jennifer Ames of Litchfield and Loretta Reichel of Litchfield; her grandchildren, Marc Crocker and Allison MacDonald of Portland, Cathy Crocker Wheaton and her husband, Corey, of Brownfield, Richard Beaule and his wife, Jennifer, of Indiana, Pa., John Beaule and his wife, Theresa, of Northern Cambria, Pa., and Stacey Beaule of Latrobe, PA.; her great-granddaughters, Amber Beaule, Megan Beaule and Catie Jo Wheaton; a sister, Marguerite Rebehn of Corinth, N.Y.; and several nieces and nephews.