Helen K. Westphal

With great sadness we say 'Goodbye' to our LOVED wife, sister, and aunt: Helen Kay Westphal, 65, who passed in Newmanstown, PA on April 23, 2026. Helen is survived by her husband of 33 years, Craig Cole and her 5 siblings. Those who knew Helen loved, appreciated, and respected her loyalty, dedication, hard work, honesty, quick wit, spirit of adventure, and generosity not only to family, friends, and co-workers but to those charitable organizations she supported, serving humans and animals, respectively. In her youth she aspired to become a song-writer, her musical talents from her father's side of the family. This was replaced with her love of Morgan horses discovered when she read "Justin Morgan Had A Horse". She shared her love of the Morgan horse with her nieces and nephew and upon giving them one of her beautiful Morgan horses," opened their love for horses and horseback riding". As a young adult, she fell in love with Dobermans as well. After that more often than not, there was a Doberman in the family. She exemplified the saying 'never judge a book by its cover'. Though modest in size, she possessed exceptional strength and endurance, characteristics of the Morgan horses she loved. She approached others with respect and openness, all with a keen memory. She was a Certified Public Accountant and was very successful in her working career. She started at Arthur Anderson which, when she worked for them, was a prominent international public accounting firm. She ultimately retired for the first time from AES Placerita, where she had an integral management role in the joint venture between AES and the Government of India establishing a power plant that would serve millions of people. Upon retiring from AES, Helen cared for her mother who had Alzheimer's. Upon mom's passing, Helen started her second career with the City of Lebanon, Pennsylvania where she worked for 15 years. She had a great deal of respect for the Mayor who had this to say about Helen..."Helen had a special place in my heart. When I first took office in January, 2010, the city was facing deep financial challenges and I knew we needed strong, capable leadership to move forward. I promoted Helen to lead the finance department because she understood exactly what needed to be done to guide us where we needed to go. Together, we worked long and hard to address short term deficits, bring spending under control and ultimately create a surplus. We also tackled several years of overdue audits. Through it all, Helen was my steady hand. I could always turn to her for guidance, knowing I would receive not only a knowledgeable perspective, but one grounded in honesty and trust. She will be deeply missed." Outside of work, Helen was involved in the local riding club and provided them with sound financial guidance as well. Helen was taken entirely too early from those who loved her and those she helped; she is at peace now and will continue her journey as she soars through the Heavens. We will miss her; there are no words to express the depth of our loss of our LOVED HELEN.