NEW MARSHFIELD — Cecilia Rinaldi passed away peacefully in her sleep on February 27, 2023, after a long struggle with the effects of diabetes. She was born in 1948 to Nicholas M. Rinaldi and Candida Paradiso Rinaldi. She grew up in the suburbs of Collinwood and Euclid outside Cleveland, Ohio.
After graduating from Euclid Senior High School in June 1966, she attended Ohio University, earning a bachelor’s degree in Spanish in 1970. She began her graduate studies in the summer of 1970 in Mexico as a participant in the OU Study Abroad Program in Xalapa, Veracruz, at the Universidad Veracruzana. Upon returning to the United States, she continued her graduate work at Ohio University in the master’s program of the International Studies Department. She was the first person to be awarded an assistantship in the Latin American Studies Planning Committee, later approved as the Latin American Studies Program. She graduated in 1971 with a double major in History and Political Science of Latin America. She began teaching secondary Spanish in 1971 and taught until 1976, when she returned to Ohio University to work on a second graduate degree: a Master of Education in Community Counseling.
She returned to teaching secondary Spanish and English in 1984 and eventually retired from teaching in 2002. In 2000, she and a friend opened On the Path, Ltd. Holistic Health Center near The Plains. In addition to client work, the center hosted meditation gatherings and special programs and classes related to holistic health. Cecilia studied Pranic Healing and reiki, and was certified in reflexology and ortho-bionomy. On the Path, Ltd. was open for 10 years until she and her business partner decided they wanted to pursue other endeavors.
Once On the Path closed, Cecilia was able to devote her time doing what she loved best: gardening and tending her flower beds at her home. She will be remembered as generous, inspirational, a great chef, a lover of canines and felines alike, a teller of crass jokes, a fighter for equal rights for all, a spirited thespian, and someone with boundless energy.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Nicholas and Candida, and her half-brother Angelo Rinaldi. She is survived by her husband of 45 years, Robert Eichenberg, and their two children, Arianna and Michael Rinaldi-Eichenberg, all of whom she loved with all her heart.
No public services are planned. Arrangements are with Jagers & Sons Funeral Home, Athens. In lieu of flowers donations in her name can be made to: Southeast Ohio History Center, 24 W. State St., Athens, OH 45701; Natural Resources Defense Council, 40 W. 20th St., 11th floor, New York, NY 10011; or Save the Redwoods League, 111 Sutter St., 11th floor, San Francisco, CA 94104. Please share a memory, a note of condolence or sign the online register at www.jagersfuneralhome.com.
