Irene Orkin Metzger, 89, died on May 25, 2015, at home. She is survived by her children, Amy Metzger of Bloomington, IN, Paul Metzger of Sarasota, FL, and Ernest Metzger of Glasgow, Scotland, and many grandchildren.

She was born Irene Elaine Orkin on April 26, 1926, in New York City, the only child of Ernst Orkin and Lena Gamsu Orkin. Her family moved frequently around the city, eventually settling in Washington Heights, where her father could receive war refugees. She attended George Washington High School, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1948 with an AB in history. She then trained herself as a typist and stenographer and worked for the Foreign Policy Association and Columbia University. In 1950 she married Marvin Metzger, also from New York, and in 1954 they moved to Champaign-Urbana, where Marvin joined the Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering. Marvin died in 1987, and Irene lived in Champaign-Urbana until her death.

Her children were still young when she began training as a tailor in the 60s. She was highly skilled, and for a time owned a fabric business, "Silk and Woolen," in downtown Champaign. She later worked in the costume shop at the (new) Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Tailoring was her first serious career, and her home was crowded with fabrics, patterns, and fashion magazines well into the 70s.

Modest, immigrant families like Irene's did not do "charity" (too studied) but natively gave away their extra time and money. This was Irene's way, and with her children grown she volunteered her extra time. In the 70s she delivered meals-on-wheels, read to the blind, worked a desk at the Urbana Free Library, and visited the elderly. Later in life, with more security, she gave regularly to a great number of causes: Doctors without Borders, Islamic Relief, Planned Parenthood, the Champaign-Urbana Jewish Federation, and many others. She gave unselfconsciously, and with an urgency felt only by the truly compassionate.

Her volunteering was the beginning of a second career in social work. She earned her MSW in 1976 from the University of Illinois, and was certified as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in 1981. She spent her working life, from volunteering onwards, with Family Service of Champaign County. In the early 80s she supervised a referral service for the needy and abused, and later trained as a family counselor, doing individual and marital counseling until her retirement. But if asked, she would say her greatest talent was in working with the elderly. In her visits to Sidney, Homer, Ogden, and St. Joseph, she gave untiring love and care to those least able to keep her memory.

Irene was well known as an extraordinary cook, always eager to find a new skill and always courageous in choosing new dishes. Her first idol was Dione Lucas, a Cordon Bleu graduate with a television cooking program in the late 40s. Irene would rush home at noon to watch, and then call in sick so she could practice what she had seen. To popularize fine cooking was new even in New York, and Irene was among the first generation to bring the same enthusiasm to Central Illinois. Her talent was truly on display when she entertained, which she did beautifully.

Becoming an early widow spurred her where it would have discouraged others. She trained as an athlete, and for the last three decades of her life variously gave herself over to cross-country skiing, weight training, and Pilates. She was also determined to build a wine cellar, learn Wagner's "Ring," master the computer, improve her husband's garden, and speak French. She travelled to Europe and the United Kingdom repeatedly, but also to the Soviet Union and virtually all of the Far East.

From childhood she loved the arts, and in retirement had more time to devote. Music and especially the opera were close to her, and traveling to distant productions became a hobby. Her appetite for reading history was enormous. She had adopted Central Illinois as her home, but artists of the prairie made it irrevocable. In all her loves her enthusiasm was wonderfully unaffected by age, her growing blindness, or the four cancers she survived.

Irene expressed herself frankly and often spontaneously. Private thoughts emerged suddenly. She felt things deeply, and this sometimes made her anxious and frenetic, but also very loyal to her friends. To her husband she was a savior, drawing him away from overwork and isolation. To her children she was a guide to how to behave in the world. To all her surviving family she is still present, audibly pattering away, whenever they cook, act generously, or do something bold.

Irene was among a generation of outsiders who came to Champaign-Urbana in the 50s. They brought ideas and energy and helped to create a place they and their children would not wish to leave. Each loss marks a legacy of activity and good works, 60 years and continuing, brought to our community by their extraordinary lives.