OBITUARY

Former Lansdale Community Housing Services director passes away

Gloria Echols was 79.

Gloria Echols.

Gloria Echols was 79.

  • Community

The former executive director of Lansdale’s Community Housing Services, a nonprofit food pantry and underprivileged housing organization that suddenly closed its doors in 2013 after 30 years of helping the community, passed away Friday at the age of 79.

The death of Gloria Lemmon Echols, of Pottstown, formerly of Lansdale and Towamencin, was announced by her daughter, Lauren, and Green-Cooper-Gaskins Funeral Home LLC on Friday.

Community Housing Services closed its doors at 311 N. Broad St. on Feb. 1, 2013. Five years prior, the nonprofit was in dire straits, as the North Penn United Way pulled its funding from the organization.

Under Echols’ leadership, the nonprofit was known for its food pantry and its popular Christmas family adoption program, which provided more than 300 families in the area with holiday gifts annually.



author

Tony Di Domizio

Tony Di Domizio is the Managing Editor of NorthPennNow, PerkValleyNow, and CentralBucksNow, and a staff writer for WissNow. Email him at [email protected]. Tony graduated from Kutztown University and went on to serve as a reporter and editor for various news organizations, including Patch/AOL, The Reporter in Lansdale, Pa., and The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa. He was born and raised in and around Lansdale and attended North Penn High School. Lansdale born. St. Patrick's Day, 1980.