In Memoriam: Elvera Hornung

By L. Jeannette Davis, DSW, Secretary, SLO Unit

This June the SLO unit spotlighted Elvera Hornung, LCSW, on our Facebook page, not knowing that she would die peacefully on July 20, 2015.

Ms. Hornung was born in June 1928 in Chicago, Illinois. Her 87 years of life were full, bold and filled with passion. Possessing a fearless wanderlust, and despite her limited mobility from childhood tuberculosis in her left knee, she traveled the world, earned her MSW from UCLA [1959], marched against the Vietnam war and for civil rights for African Americans, and had a social work career which included being on the faculty of University of Minnesota, School of Social Work [1967–1972], and 30 years at the Department of Veterans Affairs–Long Beach and West Los Angeles.

Ms. Hornung was an early pioneer in the recognition and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder when she identified that Vietnam veterans were struggling with symptoms unrecognized by the psychiatric community [1973], and in 1982 she created a specialized Ex-POW Program which she led for 14 years until her retirement.

In retirement, she continued her commitment to the social work profession by being a supervisor at the SLO Community Counseling Center [1998–2010]. In looking back over her social work career she felt that working with the veterans in the Ex-POW Program was the most gratifying, but her early years when she worked for the California Youth Authority as a parole agent with teenage girls were her most memorable. Three of these girls became her “cosmic” daughters, two of whom were at her side when she died.

Ms. Hornung joined NASW in 1958 and was proud of the various positions she held over the years, remaining active as the SLO unit’s CEU coordinator until her death. In 2000, she was the SLO Unit Social Worker of the Year. We will miss her insightful questions of the CEU speakers, her watchfulness of our unit’s financial health, her support of Lobby Days by getting CalPoly students to attend, her humor, and just her presence over these many years with us [1997–2015].

A memorial service to celebrate Elvera Hornung’s  life and achievements will be held on August 16 at 1:00 pm at the Country Club in San Luis Bay Estates in Avila Beach, California.

Please sign her guestbook at www.sanluisobispo.com/obituaries.