Helen Davis Zettle

Published July 11, 2013 This content is archived.

Helen Davis Zettle, a longtime UB administrative assistant known as “The Voice of Norton Union,” died June 22 at the home of her daughter in Williamsville after a short illness. She was 88.

Born in Berlin, Md., Zettle grew up in the Philadelphia area after moving there with her family at a young age. After high school, she took a job manufacturing wartime goods at the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, Pa., where  she met her husband of 41 years, Vernon C. Zettle, who was kept out of World War II due to an eye condition.

She and her husband eventually settled in Buffalo, where Zettle held a variety of administrative positions at UB, first at the old Norton Union, the former student union on the South Campus, where her job as public address announcer earned her the nickname “The Voice of Norton Union,” and later at the School of Dental Medicine.

Zettle was a voracious reader and frequently audited classes at UB. She and her husband loved to travel, and made trips throughout Europe and the Middle East.