Frances Reardon Sinderwahl, PhD, nee Frances Leigh Ritter, died December 26, 2015, at her home in Anderson, Alabama. Frances was born July 6, 1932, the daughter of Allen and Frances (Forrester) Ritter of Monroe, Louisiana. She graduated in 1950 from Neville High School, although two of her high school years were spent at St. Vincent's Academy in Shreveport, a Catholic boarding school for girls where she excelled in drama and studied piano under Mildred Benton. After graduation she attended LSU briefly, where she continued her studies in piano under Ms. Benton until her marriage. At LSU she was distinguished by performing at the Bach Festival, a rare honor for a freshman.
Frances married John Reardon in 1951. They lived briefly in Baton Rouge and Seattle before moving to Birmingham, Alabama, then Atlanta Georgia, and finally settling in Birmingham to raise their six children, Patrick, Michael, Lisa, Julie, Stephanie, and Christopher until their divorce in 1983.
Frances completed her PhD in Transpersonal Psychology at The Union Graduate School of the University Without Walls in June 1984, after training in groups at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and getting significant input from Jean Houston. From the context paper for her thesis filmpoem "You and Me and the 80 Day Parade":
“My study and methodology centered in a specific aspect of transformation, the evocation and support of communication between the unconscious collective psyche/soul and consciousness... ...there is a source of wisdom within each individual that can be accessed to guide the individual to fuller development…"
She had private practices in Birmingham, Miami Beach, and Coral Springs, Florida as well as working for Catholic Family Services counseling abused children in Florida and developing various personal growth workshops in Alabama and Florida.
A year after she and John divorced, Frances moved to North Miami and then Margate, Florida with Stefan (Jerry) Chase. In 1993 they formally married. In addition to her work, Frances also became a Florida master gardener, raising oranges, grapefruit, mango, banana, papaya, passionfruit and ornamentals as well as raising butterflies.
In 2007 they returned and retired to Alabama to be closer to her children and experience country life, where she spent time raising fig trees and other fruit, gardening and delighting in baking breads, brioche, panatone and other goodies while also studying Chinese herbal healing and working at her poetry and other literary pursuits.
Frances was continually on the leading edge of social justice and personal growth. She understood the power of the mind and words, trained with Silva Mind Control and attended the Breadloaf Writer's Conference in Vermont, in addition to later studies of neuro-linguistic programming, guided imagery, and brainwave entrainment at her work at MindWorld in Miami, Florida.
In the early 60’s she advocated for racial equality with her Altar Sodality where she argued that African-American members should receive Communion with white members. She was also aware of the need to counter violence even within our language and adopted adjustments to popular expressions, for example, using “hatch two birds from one egg” instead of “kill two birds with one stone”.
In the latter years of her life she wrote, designed, and mounted a significant anti-war performance artwork "War and Peace: The Nightmare and the Dream" in conjunction with the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fort Lauderdale, and set about developing her skills in nonviolent communication as an alternative to her training in psychotherapy which was couched in terms of illness and disability rather than personal growth and ability.
She is survived by her husband, Stefan Chase; her children: Patrick Herbert Reardon and his wife Jean, Sherman,Texas; Lisa Joan Reardon, Mount Rainier, Maryland; Michael Edward Reardon, Atlanta, Georgia; Julie Anne Reardon, Birmingham, Alabama; Stephanie Grace Koell, Ashland, Oregon; and Christopher Geoffrey Reardon, Birmingham, Alabama; as well as six grandchildren: Cole Michael Reardon, Amelia Clare Reardon, Aiyana Paola Reardon, Andrea Michelle Koell, Christina Renee Koell, and Julian Matthew Koell; a sister, Sara Ritter Traylor, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; a brother, Allen Joseph “A.J.” Ritter, Jr. (Dian), Monroe, Louisiana; a sister-in-law, Joyce Ritter, Shreveport, Louisiana; and several nieces and nephews. Frances was preceded in death by her parents: Frances Leigh (Forrester) Ritter and Allen Joseph Ritter Sr.; two brothers: Gene Ray (Ferguson) Ritter and his wife, Margaret; and Michael Cosgrove Ritter; and a brother-in-law, Neil Brown Traylor, Jr.
Contributions can be made in Frances’ honor to the Center for Nonviolent Communication (www.cnvc.org).