Helen Rittenberg, an educator and bike enthusiast who launched a midlife career in mental health and whose marriage was among the first legal same-sex marriages in the area, passed away at Newton-Wellesley Hospital last week at the age of 88.

According to her obituary (which was written by her wife, Lois), Rittenberg was born and raised in Brookline and started her professional life with quite an education. She graduated from Boston University School of Education, Columbia University Teachers College and the Boston College School of Education.

After teaching in elementary schools in New York for nearly two decades and serving as a principal in Mamaroneck, N.Y., for three years, Rittenberg moved to Newton, where she was principal of Williams Elementary School in Newton  from 1977 to 1979. Rittenberg made Newton her home for the rest of her life with her wife, Lois Levin, whom she had met in 1963.

In the late 1980s, she switched careers and became an educational psychologist to help children struggling with mental health and issues at home.

Rittenberg was also a lifelong bicyclist and served as president emeritus of Bike Newton and as a member of its steering committee, along with Lois. And in 2004, she and Lois were married right after a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court made same-sex marriage legal. Kitty Dukakis was at the wedding, as was her husband, the former governor.

She leaves behind her wife, Lois Levin, her friends and family and her African grey parrot named Niki. A celebration of her life will be held at her Waban home on Sept. 3.

You can read Rittenberg’s full obituary here.

And you can read the story of Helen and Lois here.