Elsa Anne Kieffer, cherished family
Elsa Anne (Bray) Kieffer, 64, of Millsboro, passed away Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, at her home in The Peninsula community. She was born Dec. 16, 1958, at Tachikawa Air Force Base, Tokyo, Japan, and was the daughter of the late Huly Edwin and Elsa Maria (Rivas) Bray of Bethesda, Md.
Elsa attended Carderock Elementary School and Cabin John Middle School in Montgomery County, Md., and graduated from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda in 1977. She then attended the University of Maryland, where she received a bachelor’s degree in life sciences.
Elsa had a long career at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., and worked for many years in the Office of Medical Applications of Research (OMAR). She retired from NIH in 2006 as a senior advisor in the NIH Consensus Development Program. She felt a great amount of pride in the work that she did at NIH.
Elsa was a natural and gifted athlete, and as a young girl excelled at many sports including swimming, diving and gymnastics. While working at NIH, she was a member of the NIH Judo Club and obtained the rank of Shodan (first-degree black belt). In 2016, she took up the sport of pickleball and excelled at it. She developed many pickleball friendships in the Rehoboth Beach area. From 2011-17, Elsa served as the guardian for her disabled aunt, Maria Elisa “Eli” Rivas. The time spent with her family and those she held dear was what Elsa cherished most. She was a loving and incredibly sweet person who will be deeply missed by all whose lives she touched.
Elsa is survived by her loving husband, Craig Kieffer; her siblings, Jon Bray (Marjory), Katherine Murphy (Bobby Levin), Maria Christmas (Brendan McNelis), James Bray (Argelia), Patricia Swarm and Phillip Bray (Jennifer); her nieces and nephews, Jocelyn Puccio (PJ), Jamie, Dimitri, Joseph and Andrew Bray, Bryce Swarm (Samantha), Christopher Bray (Henrietta), Mathew Bray (Tiffany), and Elizabeth Horan (Kevin); her great-nieces and -nephews, Liliana Puccio, Isla and Ava Swarm, Riley, Cooper, Liam and Ruby Bray, and Dolan Horan; her stepson, Joey Keiffer (Jeannette); her stepgrandson, Jaxon Kieffer; her sister-in-law, Cyndee Schoenhoff; and her dear friend, Nancy Charlton.
A memorial service will be held in April 2023, at Hermon Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Md.
Final care has been entrusted to Parsell Funeral Homes & Crematorium, Atkins-Lodge Chapel, Lewes.
Visit Elsa’s Life Memorial webpage and sign her virtual guestbook at parsellfuneralhomes.com.
