Deirdre B. (Bilz) Allison of Wellesley, formerly of South Hadley. May 25, 2022. Daughter of Margaret and Howard Bilz. Loving mother of Jeffrey H. Allison Jr. of Wellesley. Sister of Traci Scanlon of Holyoke, MA and Joseph Bilz of Oneonta, NY. Deirdre was a graduate of South Hadley High School and UMass Amherst with a major in psychology.
After Graduating from UMass, Deirdre began her career in Executive Search with a job at Positions Inc. During this time, Deirdre was also on the board of the American Cancer Society where she ran multiple fundraisers. In 1993, Deirdre left Positions Inc. and started working at Heidrick & Struggles, where she was the youngest person to ever hold her position. In 1994 she was awarded the prestigious “10 Outstanding Young Leaders in Boston”, and moved to Wellesley in 1996. In 2007 she started her own Executive search company; Chapel Hill Partners, and in 2020 she became Managing Director at ZRG Partners. Recently, Deirdre had also begun to mentor low income and first generation students at UMass through “UMass Women into leadership”. Along with work, she loved to cook, garden, and spend time with her friends, her son JJ, and her dog, Zoey. Deirdre also loved to travel, having been to 38 countries and was an avid member of the Wellesley Service League.
A Funeral Mass will be held at St. Paul Church, Wellesley on Thursday, June 2, at 10am. All who knew Deirdre are kindly invited. Interment in Woodlawn Cemetery, Wellesley. In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be made in Deirdre’s memory to St. Jude Children Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Pl. Memphis, TN 38105. Psalm 23:6