Linda Hromco Backus, Burlington

? A memorial service for Linda Hromco Backus, 54, Burlington, will be at 4 p.m. March 26 at First Congregational Church, Burlington.

Mrs. Backus died Sunday, March 13, 2005, in Burlington.

She was born Dec. 26, 1950, in Johnstown, Pa., the daughter of John and Margaret Digon Hromco. She attended school in Windber, Pa., and graduated from Windber Area High School. She graduated from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania in 1972. She received a doctorate in special education in 1991 from Kansas University. She had lived in upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Lawrence, Kan., and Vermont.

Mrs. Backus was co-owner of Needlecraft Corner in Richfield Springs, N.Y. and a co-founder of Richfield Spring Grove Food Co-op. She taught English and drama at Spring Grove Area High School before teaching for two years at Pathway School for children with behavior disorders in Norristown, Pa. She became director of Herkimer ARC Day Treatment Program in Ilion, N.Y., in 1979.

She was a professor in the Community and Preventative Medicine Department of New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y., and taught at the University of Vermont from 1994 to 2004. She was a primary organizer of the faculty union at Vermont and served on the organization steering committee, as chairwoman of the contract committee and later as president from 2002 to 2003. She was an active member of First Congregational Church in Burlington.

Mrs. Backus married Robert Backus in 1981, in Lawrence. He survives, of the home.

Other survivors include her parents, Windber; a son, Isaac Backus, of the home; a daughter, Jessica Backus, of the home; a sister, Valerie Busch, Florida; and a brother, John Hromco, Lebanon, Pa.,

The family suggests memorials to the Linda Backus Memorial Scholarship Fund, UPV 156 College Street, Burlington 05401 or the Mission Committee of the church, 38 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington 05401.