Elza Ella (Gostola) Fayling

May 5, 1918 - Sep 18, 2009

Elza Fayling served others for 60 years

Special to the Gazette AUGUSTA - For nearly 60 years, until just a few months before her death, Elza Fayling dedicated herself to meeting the needs of others, most notably polio sufferers, children with birth defects and patients at the Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital. "She just had a desire to be of service," said William A. Decker, retired medical superintendent of KPH. Fayling was perhaps best known as executive director of the March of Dimes in Kalamazoo County beginning in the early 1950s, when it worked to eradicate polio, and continuing when it turned its attention to fighting birth defects.

Fayling, a longtime Augusta resident who died Sept. 18 at the age of 91, retired in 1986 as executive director of what had become the Elza Fayling March of Dimes Southern Tier Chapter covering 10 counties, but continued for years after that as a consultant with the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. She went around the country helping other chapters replicate fundraising and other initiatives that had made the local chapter successful, said Fayling's daughter, Melanie Fayling. As president for many years and later longtime director of the Citizens Association of Kalamazoo State Hospital, Fayling worked with June Sherman, director of volunteer services, in numerous fundraising efforts that made life better for the patients there, Decker said. "The (state) appropriations, the financial means of running the hospital:.. were always inadequate," he said.

"Elza and June recognized that and through the Citizens Association were able to raise thousand of dollars for what was known as the Patients Benefit Fund." Fayling's husband, Lloyd, who preceded her in death in 1982, began working for the March of Dimes, then known as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, after he was stricken with the disease in 1951. He soon recruited his wife to serve as executive secretary, which evolved into the executive director position. "She was a commanding presence," Melanie Fayling said. "She organized every aspect of the (March of Dimes) campaigns and the educational programs." Fayling had a hand in the preservation of Gate Cottage and the building and upkeep of the June M. Sherman Interfaith Chapel at the psychiatric hospital, as well as raising funds to provide clothing, excursions, dental services and other amenities to patients.

"She was a very strong-willed person who, when she set her mind on a project, knew exactly what the objective was and how to achieve that objective," Decker said.

Surviving Fayling are three daughters, Sue Fosmoen, of Augusta, Valerie Claspell, of Portage, and Melanie Fayling and her husband, Fred Kirschman, of Augusta; three sons, Lloyd and Leslie Fayling, of Owosso, William and Jerri Fayling, of Delton, and Christopher Fayling, of Augusta; 12 grandchildren; 14 great -grandchildren; and a sister and brother-in-law, Gabriella and Roy Phillips-Anderson, of Sacramento, Calif., and brother and sister-in-law, Albert and Marilyn, Gostola, of South Bend, Ind. A service was held Sept. 22 at St. Timothy Episcopal Church, Richland.

The Farley-Estes & Dowdle Funeral Home Richland Chapel handled arrangements

Sources: Ancestry.com, Legacy.com and FindAGrave.com

11/10/2025 EJS

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59894853/elza-ella-fayling