On April 29, 2018, Ute Peithmann-Koch née Peithmann (table 25) died very suddenly at age 65. Ute had been the chairwoman of our Peit(h)mann Family Association reg. Her unexpected death was not only a terrible blow for her husband Günter Koch and their sons Lutz and Fritz, her siblings and their families but it was also bad for our Family Association.
Ute had been chosen as the chair of the Family Association in 2011 taking over from Hermann Peithmann who had done a great job for many years. His successor continued in the tradition created by Hermann. She organised family reunions and casual family weekends as well as general meetings of the members. Supporting Wilhelm Meier-Peithmann and Sonia Bounatirou she furthered the research into our family’s past. A working group helped her fulfill her manifold tasks. After her death her deputy Wolfgang Peithmann (Weimar) took over. It is planned to elect a new chair on September 15, 2018.
Ute was born on Dec. 9, 1952, in Hannover as the third child of Ludolf Peithmann and his wife Erna. She grew up in Hannover, Mülheim/Ruhr and Hagen. She studied business administration and economics at the universities of Aachen and Mannheim and worked for a company in Bad Oeynhausen before entering her father’s company in Bünde. In 1980 she married Günter Koch who later entered the Ludwig Peithmann GmbH&Co KG as well. Their sons were born in 1983 and 1985.
Ute acted prominently in the PTA in Bünde, and she volunteered for a number of other non-profit organisations who all benefitted from her organising talent. She worked as a well respected lay judge at the labour court in Hamm. During her last year she had been the top representative of the German Inner Wheel organisation. As such she had taken part in the Inner Wheel World Convention in Australia from which she returned only a week before her death. During the obsequies in Bünde the orators and other attendants remembered Ute as a radiant person who had always had an open ear for the ideas and problems of the people around her.
We as Peit(h)mann Family Association reg. thank Ute Peithmann-Koch for all her activities within the framework of creation and in the working of this organisation since 1978. She will not be forgotten. We all feel deep sympathy with her family.