Georgette Marie Zifko

Georgette Marie Zifko, Ph.D., 69, passed away peacefully on November 25, 2024, with her kids by her side. She was the daughter of the late George and Sophie (Mistak) Zifko and the sister of the atemporal Monica Zifko. She is barely survived by her loquacious children Preston and Georgette Catriona. Georgette was born in 1954 and raised in Colebrook, Ohio, on the Zifko family dairy farm, where she learned how to balance hard work and responsibility with frivolity and familial joy. For her entire life, she was extremely proud of growing up as part of the thriving farming community of Orwell. 

She graduated from Grand Valley High School at sixteen where she was an award-winning majorette and proud FFA member. She attended Kent State University in the fall of 1970, earning her Associate, Bachelor’s, MBA, and ultimately her Ph.D. Her college hijinks included facing down the National Guard at protests, vocally supporting the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and turning down Jack Lambert when he asked her out (though she remained a lifelong Steelers fan). 

In her spare time, she did road trips with her family to all 48 contiguous states, went to the USSR with her sister, Monica, in 1972, and traipsed around Europe for six months as a solo female traveler (decades before GPS tracking or influencers were a thing). 

In no particular order, her path to being an iconoclast included being the first woman in leadership on the floor of a Ford manufacturing plant, a stockbroker at Smith Barney in New York, a renowned professor of International Business at Ohio State University and Baldwin Wallace University, and the founder and owner of the Institute for Quality Care (a research consultancy dedicated to improving patient care at hospitals). But there was no job Georgette found more thrilling, challenging, rewarding, or hilarious than her role as a single mother to Preston and Georgette Catriona. 

As a mom, Georgette was enthralled with sharing every experience she could with her cafe au lait kids to allow them to learn firsthand rather than preaching lessons to them. This led to many Homeric shenanigans in their childhood, including racing the clock to submit Great Geauga County fair exhibits, whisking her kids on last-minute trips to Disney World, and multiple Olympics, and encouraging them to enjoy the beautiful and the broken-in cars and romantic partners. Dr. G was a devoted patron of the Cleveland Arts and loved gallivanting around Cleveland with her kids, from celebrating the Feast at Little Italy to overbuying Kielbasa in Collinwood. She was always ready with an extra ticket for a friend to Playhouse Square shows, museum exhibitions, Indians playoff games, and the away section of Steelers v. Browns games. In facing life’s unavoidable challenges, she showed her kids that the best way through is by sticking together and choosing to have fun. Even when writing obituaries, there is always room for laughter. 

Anyone lucky enough to know Georgette knows that it is practically impossible to describe her legacy and the indelible mark she leaves on all of us. She was a force of nature and lit up every room she walked into, with rays of sunshine or for the unlucky, bolts of lighting. She was uncompromising in her beliefs and never hesitated to demonstrate her strongly held convictions through fervent support and refusal to sit in complicity. She lived every day with energetic mystery and whimsical joy reveled in pursuing whatever piqued her curiosity and encouraged others to look for wonder in the life around them. 

Come celebrate her life with us at some or all of the events below. If you cannot join us, we would love for you to share your own stories about our mother in the guestbook on www.baumgardnerfuneralhomes.com or by email to georgettebaliga@gmail.com or prestonzifko@gmail.com. There will be a Mass of Christian Burial on December 5, 2024, at 11:00 AM at St. Mary Catholic Church, 103 North Maple Street, Orwell, Ohio, 44076. A burial will follow in Easton Road Cemetery in Colebrook, Ohio. Her calling hours will be on December 4th from 4:00 PM until 6:00 PM at Baumgardner Funeral & Cremation Service, 8569 Main Street, Kinsman, Ohio, 44428, with a continued celebration of her life and birthday from 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM at Peter Allen Inn, 8581 State Street, Kinsman, Ohio 44428. 

In lieu of flowers or gifts, please make donations to The Warrior Women Project or Planned Parenthood.