When Winslow Womack went on a blind date with Helen Etter at the age of 28, he had no idea the encounter would lead to a lifetime together—66 beautiful years. “Helen was a sweet woman. In our years together we never exchanged a harsh word. She really cared about people, and Helen had a way of communicating with others. She always wanted to help,” says Mr. Womack.

But Mr. Womack’s sweet wife was also a tough cookie, spending her childhood between Towson, Maryland and the rustic boys and girls summer camps her family owned in St. Michaels. The 1930s and 40s camp life was pastoral though, not posh like the children’s camps of today. It was there Mrs. Womack gained a lifelong love of sailing, the outdoors, and “roughing it” on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
While the camps closed after Mrs. Womack’s father passed, and most of the land was sold off, Mrs. Womack and her sisters retained plots to continue the summer tradition for their families. The Womacks set up camp first in a pitched tent, then in an outbuilding, and finally in a house Mr. Womack built himself. While he worked during the week on the Western Shore in the aerospace sector, Mrs. Womack enjoyed rural living with their five kids every summer. “The county didn’t bring electricity down our lane until 1965,” he says.

The family moved full-time to Easton in 1970, and Mr. Womack continued working his job at Goddard Space Center—an early adopter of Eastern Shore living with a Western Shore commute. In 1987, Mr. Womack retired to pursue his interests, including sailing, boat building, and spending time at their house in St. Michaels.

In 2013, a chance encounter at the Easton Lowe’s brought the Womacks a new passion—supporting nursing education at Chesapeake College. “I was checking out and the young woman behind the register didn’t seem to know what she was doing. She admitted it was her first day on the job,” says Mr. Womack. “I learned that she had quit the nursing program at the College because she ran out of money. When I got home, Helen and I talked about how there was no reason we couldn’t do something to help.”

And so began the Helen Etter Womack Endowed Nursing Scholarship fund. Over the years, the Womacks added to their endowed fund, willing the principal to grow to provide support indefinitely for students pursuing a nursing degree at Chesapeake College. Providing this support seemed like a natural fit for one of Mrs. Womack’s other interests besides her beloved sailing— mental health care. In addition to being a board member for Crossroads Community, Inc. for many years, she was also the past president of the Talbot County Mental Health Association, and served on the Governor’s Task Force for infants, children, and youth.

Mrs. Womack passed away in December of 2023 at the age of 96. And while the absence of her presence is felt profoundly by those who loved her dearly, her name and legacy of helping will live on through the endowed scholarship she and Mr. Womack established—all from a chance encounter at the Easton Lowe’s.