14-05-2025
Sharon Ohlweiler Tufaro, teacher and toy shop cofounder, dies
Sharon Ohlweiler Tufaro, a teacher who taught preschool and English to Baltimore's newcomers and was cofounder of a toy shop, died of breast cancer Sunday at her Roland Park home. She was 75.
Born in Rock Island, Illinois, and raised in Canton, Ohio, she was the daughter of Robert Ohlweiler, an industrial engineer, and Mia Katarina 'Mary' Ohlweiler, a nurse who emigrated from Germany in the 1930s. She was a 1968 graduate of Allemann High School in Rock Island and earned a degree at St. Mary's College in South Bend, Indiana.
Her family said she spent a transformative year while in college, in Innsbruck, Austria, where she mastered German, learned to ski the Alps and deepened her love for travel and culture. She cherished her Innsbruck classmates from the University of Notre Dame and St. Mary's College and gathered with them to celebrate their connections.
She moved to Baltimore in 1972 and became a Baltimore City Schools preschool teacher and pursued a master's degree in social work at the University of Maryland. She volunteered at the Neighborhood Design Center to support city planning efforts in Northeast Baltimore. As a Catholic Charities social worker, she found homes in Baltimore for children born overseas.
She met her future husband, David Tufaro, in Bolton Hill at the swimming pool at the Sutton Place apartments. They married at Corpus Christi Church in 1979.
They settled in Bolton Hill, restored a home and developed a wide circle of friends.
'My mother's friendships with other neighborhood moms evolved into a lifelong sisterhood known as the 'Way Back Club,'' said her daughter, Theresa Tufaro.
In 1992, Ms. Tufaro and a friend, Nancy Cusack, pursued a dream and opened Shananigans Toy Shop on Wyndhurst Avenue in Roland Park. They created its name from Sharon and Nancy.
'With her boundless energy, eye for joy, and genuine love for children, my mother helped create a store that became a beloved neighborhood institution,' said her daughter, Jennifer Nolley. 'It was never just a store. It was a place of magic, imagination, and community.'
The women sold the store in 2005, and it remains in business under other ownership.
She had a desire to help immigrants in her city, her husband, David, said. She learned Spanish so she could better connect with and teach English to newcomers. At age 62, she earned a second master's degree in teaching English as a second language from Notre Dame of Maryland University.
Ms. Tufaro taught adults at Baltimore City Community College and volunteered at the Esperanza Center in Fells Point, where she led English and citizenship classes. Her students came from all over the world — South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
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'She welcomed each one with open arms, unwavering patience and a heart full of compassion,' her husband said.
She and her husband traveled widely. Last year, they visited Italy as an extended family of 14. She was a devoted grandmother and led them on tours in Florence and Rome.
'She lifted everyone around her — whether through a kind word, a warm smile, or an act of quiet service,' said her daughter, Christina Tufaro.
A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, 5200 N. Charles St.
Survivors include her husband, David Tufaro, the developer of the Whitehall Mill and Mill No. 1; three daughters, Theresa Tufaro, of Evergreen, Colorado; Jennifer Nolley, of Towson; and Christina Tufaro, of Towson; a sister, Bonnie Zegar of Huntley, Illinois; and six grandchildren.
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