Helen Haymore Cagampang

Helen Haymore Cagampang (born Frances Helen Haymore), age 85, of Berkeley, California,
passed away on September 14, 2026. She will be remembered for her thoughtfulness,
insatiable curiosity, and determination. She was passionate about tidepools, politics, new
experiences, and learning. She found joy in meeting new people, long discussions, and
supporting colleagues, friends, and family in the pursuit of their dreams.
Helen was born in San Antonio, TX on Nov 18, 1940, to James Walker Haymore and Frances
Helen Jeffers Haymore. Growing up, she loved riding her horse, Green Melon, and devoured
books from the public library. True to her Texas roots, she attributed her stubbornness to
having to learn how to handle her horse. Many of the life decisions she made throughout her
life reflect her rebellious and adventurous spirit.
After a childhood filled with presumptions about what was appropriate for a young woman’s
future, when Helen graduated from St. Mary’s Hall, she moved to California to attend Stanford
University. There she obtained a degree in Political Science. After graduating in 1962, she joined
the Peace Corps. She was in one of the first groups of volunteers sent to serve in the
Philippines. In Cabadbaran, Mindanao, she met and married her husband, Juan Monteroso
Cagampang II. In 1964, they returned to the United States and settled in San Francisco, CA,
where they raised their family until their divorce in 1980.
In 1980, Helen moved with her two children to Berkeley, CA to be closer to her sister and her
family. This also opened up the opportunity for Helen to continue her education at the
University of California at Berkeley. She obtained a Master’s in Public Policy in 1984 and then a
PhD in Education in 1992.
During the first part of her professional career, Helen was an early childhood educator and
executive director first at Compañeros del Barro and later at the Childcare Switchboard, both in
San Francisco. In the second part, Helen was a policy research specialist in the School of Social
Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. Later, she was a researcher with Policy
Analysis for California Education in the Berkeley School of Education, focusing on educator
workforce, instruction, finance, and school reform. She also conducted research at the UCSF
Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, specializing in adolescent reproductive health.
Helen’s one known regret was being discouraged from becoming a natural scientist.
Nonetheless, this was a lifelong interest that she found ways to pursue whether she was
teaching preschoolers about earthworms, exploring tidepools in Halfmoon Bay with friends,
introducing her children and then grandchildren to the Exploratorium and the Elk Horn Slough,
or evaluating marine biology pedagogy projects at the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.

In retirement, she resumed her interest in politics by joining the El Cerrito Democratic Club,
took classes through Olli, was an avid gardener, and enjoyed exploring the world around her
with her grandchildren and traveling afar with her best friend Martha Crowe.
Over the past five years, despite her initial resistance to moving into residential memory care,
she found a world of friends and relationships there that would animate her days and with
whom she could share her kindness, love of life, and feisty determination.
She was predeceased by her parents, James Walker Haymore and Frances Helen Jeffers
Haymore, and her sister, Connie Walker Haymore Reyes. She is survived by her brother, Charles
Pittman Haymore (Erika Monroy Fonseca) of San Antonio, daughter Connie Cagampang Heller
and her husband Jonathan Cagampang Heller of Oakland CA, and her son, Juan Haymore
Cagampang and his wife Dorothy Epstein of Portland, OR, and grandchildren, Isaak Cagampang
Heller, Micah Frances Cagampang Heller, Sidney Yael Epstein, and Zachary Sutter Epstein, her
brother-in-law, Jaime Reyes, niece Sonia Haymore Reyes (Julie Finn), nephew Gabriel Antonio
Reyes (Gina Barnes) and grandnephews and grandnieces, Charles, James, Glory, Henry, Gus,
Sebastian, Vivian, and Joaquin. She is also survived by her late-in-life companion Jeff Grote.
The family would like to extend a special thanks to the wonderful nurses, care givers, and staff
at Silverado Berkeley for their kindness, support, and dedicated care. Helen may not have
known their names, but she recognized all of them and most especially recognized that they
cared about her.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made in Helen’s honor to the Elkhorn Slough Foundation.

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