Carla Gusovius Atkins

Carla Gusovius Atkins, mother of Harry Atkins of Swarthmore, died peacefully in her sleep, of natural causes, on Wednesday, February 3, at her elder son’s home in Arlington, Virginia. She was 93.

Born in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany, to Dr. Paul Gusovius and Ella Schwarz Gusovius, Mrs. Atkins was an avid student of English at the Königin Luise Schule in Königsberg and received her Abitur (Germany’s secondary-school degree). She perfected her English by listening to the BBC and other English language broadcasts. As a teenager, after the British bombing of Königsberg in 1944, she travelled 750 miles with her family to the safety of a new home in western Germany. There she was eventually employed as a translator and secretary for the US Army in Hessen, and as the manager of an Amerika Haus library. 

In 1955, Mrs. Atkins emigrated to Detroit to take a job as a secretary for an import-export firm. In 1957, in Philadelphia, she wed Neill Stewart Atkins Jr., of Lillington, North Carolina, a career Army officer whom she had met in Germany. During their Army years, Col. and Mrs. Atkins lived in Lillington, and in El Paso, Texas, and in Brooklyn, New York. In 1964, they settled in Tampa, Florida, where Col. Atkins was employed as a computer-systems architect until his retirement. In 1976, they moved to the beach at Anna Maria Island, off the Florida coast.  

Mrs. Atkins loved her family, and also loved travelling — domestically and overseas (she flew round trip supersonically on the Concorde in 1997). She loved walking along the beach, swimming, collecting seashells, and feeding the ever-present blue herons, who never went hungry.  

Mrs. Atkins was predeceased by her husband and by her elder brother, Harald Gusovius. She is survived by her two sons, Paul Stewart Atkins (Sarah) of Arlington, Virginia, and Harry Atkins (Tracey) of Swarthmore; five grandchildren, Stewart, Peter, Henry, Margaret, and Marshall; younger brother, Burkhard Gusovius (Ute) of Wiesmoor, Germany; and Burkhard and Ute’s son Nico (Ilse), also of Wiesmoor. 

Interment will be in the family plot at Summerville Presbyterian Church in Lillington, North Carolina, at a future date.