Bernice Lampert

Bernice Lampert, age 90, passed away peacefully on Thursday, November 29, 2012 at her home at Edenwald in Towson, Md. She was born on January 27, 1922 in Philadelphia, Pa. to Rachel and Herman Finkel and was the middle child of two other sisters, Sylvia and Martha.

By the age of 11, Bernice fell in love with ballet and began to learn and perform with the Littlefield Ballet in Philadelphia, Pa., also known at different times as Philadelphia Ballet and also the ballet troupe of the Chicago City Opera.

On June 27, 1947 she married her sweetheart, Dr. A. Bruce Lampert (Buzz) and they chose Princeton as a place to begin their life together. As a young bride, Bernice danced with the Cannon Ballet Company and performed every role from Swan Lake to the Sugar Plum Fairy. Alongside raising her two daughters and managing her husband’s dental practice, she taught ballet at her own home studio as well as the Princeton Ballet Society and performed with the PJ&B Players, founded and directed by the late Milton Lyon. Many will remember her many years of contribution to the Princeton Regional Ballet, not the least of which was her daughter Maxine, who danced with the Princeton Regional Ballet and went on to a professional career with major ballet companies, achieving principal dancer status.

“Bernie” will be remembered as a bright spark to her two daughters, Lori Lampert and Maxine Lampert and her partner Dana William Rath and her “adopted” daughter, Barbara Feigh as well as the many others who unite in the afterglow of happy times and the echoes of treasured memories. Her girls are eternally grateful for the intangible abundance with which they’ve been blessed.

The memorial service and celebration of Bernice Lampert’s life will be held at the Nassau Inn, 10 Palmer Square, on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 12:30 p.m.

Please extend condolences at www.TheKimbleFuneralHome.com.

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James S. Gaspari

James S. Gaspari died Saturday, December 1, 2012, at his home in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was 79.

Born in New York City to the late Charles J. and Bertha (Cohn) Gaspari he lived in North Brunswick, New Jersey for over 50 years before retiring to Florida. He was a 1956 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania school of architecture and planning where he was a member of Beta Sigma Rho Fraternity, Hexagon Senior Honorary Society and the Architecture Society. He was a member of the track team, which competed at the international track and field meet at Oxford and Cambridge in 1955 and was an Ivy League champion in the shot put.

Mr. Gaspari opened his own architectural and planning office in North Brunswick in 1967, James S. Gaspari, AIA, where he worked for 40 years before retiring in 2009. He was a member of the American Institute of Architects and designed many commercial, religious, and residential projects all over New Jersey and in 14 other states. He served on the New Jersey State Board of Architects and Landscape Architects for 11 years and served two years on the National Council of Architectural Registration Board. He was also an adjunct professor of the landscape architecture department at Cook College of Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

He was a member of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick for over 50 years. He had served as a captain in the United States Army in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In addition to his love for his profession of architecture, he was an avid sculptor, painter, and musician. Many of his works competed in juried exhibitions and won prizes, including the Trenton
State Museum.

His wife of 44 years Florence (Miller) Gaspari died in 2000. Surviving are two daughters — Carol Gaspari Lerner and her husband Robert L. Lerner of Princeton, and Jennifer M. Gaspari of Orlando, Fla.; a son Charles M. “Chuck” Gaspari and his wife Kristen H. Gaspari of Delray Beach, Fla.; four grandchildren — Dana and Jordan Lerner and Jonas and James Gaspari; two brothers-in-law — Kalman Miller of Somerset and Robert S. Miller of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and his companion Glenna Gundel.

Funeral services took place at noon on Tuesday, December 4 at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple, 222 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, N.J. Burial followed in Elmwood Cemetery in North Brunswick. Arrangements are under the direction of Selover Funeral Home, 555 Georges Road, North Brunswick.

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Anne Bobo

Anne Bobo, my mother, died on November 4, 2012 at 5:29 p.m. She was 63 years old. To most of the folks who knew her casually, she was an artist, an educator, and an historian. I am not here to commemorate her career because it ended with her, and her end robbed us of things more important than her professional life. Instead, I want to talk about her laughter, her sense of mischief, and the joy she took from simple pleasures.

My father and I have hundreds of pictures of the three of us together, overlooking canyons and oceans, standing at the bases of mountains and at the edges of plains. In that way, she remains with us: a vision at twenty-two, a frazzled yet patient mother in her 40s, a warm and determined survivor into her 60s. Circumstances, careers, and clothes changed across that period, but the one constant is also the only thing truly lost to us: her laughter.

As a child playing in the break room at Mercer County Community College, I heard a coworker tell my mother that he wanted her in the audience of every play he put on; her laughter was better than any paid shill. She had a way of turning an entire room into co-conspirators, making everyone complicit in her delight. Beyond being bubbly, rich, and warm, her laughter was
unselfconscious. It unraveled the artifice of entertainment — seats, lights, chairs, companions — and took people out of themselves in the best possible way: you are here, this is funny. Why not laugh with me?

She also believed that rules were meant be nudged, so long as there was no harm done. For her, teaching was done all day, every day, and the process of learning necessarily made one a bit of a scamp; a certain amount of tut-tutting was the price to be paid for a full life. When I was a child she was always willing to keep a weather eye out for security guards when she felt I needed a closer peek at the dinosaur bones in the Museum of Natural History, or to peer at the brushwork in a Seurat or Monet. As her illnesses drew in the physical boundaries of her world, she was content to cadge an extra piece of dessert from my father — against doctor’s orders — or take a sip of red wine that, strictly speaking, she oughtn’t have.

These little rebellions were a way for my mother to hold on to the life she’d had before the demands of her health crowded out the comforts of indulgence. To my father’s credit, he filled her life with small hedonisms as best he could: breakfast in bed, engaging conversation, small gifts, and big meals. In one of the last pictures I have of them, they are standing with their backs to me, side by side, looking out over the rose bushes he planted in the garden she built. Today that garden is brown and our family meals are quieter, but she remains a warm presence in our hearts and memories, if not in our home.

Anne Bobo is survived by her husband, Nestor Arroyo of East Windsor, her son, Adrian Arroyo of Cambridge Mass., her sister, Susan D’arcy of Baltimore Md., and her brother, William Bobo of Hinsdale, Ill.

A memorial service will be held on December 8, 2012, at 1 p.m. at Princeton Monthly Meeting, Quaker Road and Mercer Street in Princeton N.J., 08540.

Please extend condolences at www.TheKimbleFuneralHome.com.

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Virgina Dey Craig

Born and raised in Griggstown, Mrs. Craig lived on Bunker Hill Road. She attended the one room schoolhouse in Griggstown and graduated from Princeton High School. She attended New Jersey College for Women, now Douglas College, in New Brunswick. She retired in 1973 after 33 years of service in the Purchasing Department of Johnson and Johnson. Mrs. Craig was a member of the Goodwin Society and Capital Society of Colonial Williamsburg, Va. She was also a member of the Griggstown Historical Society.

Mrs. Craig’s husband, Howard M. Craig, died in 1997 after 51 years of marriage. She was the daughter of the late Madge (Fagan) Dey, a native of Griggstown, and the late Harold Dey. She is survived by her cousins and special friends.

Funeral services will be private and under the
direction of A.S. Cole Funeral Home, 22 North Main Street, Cranbury.

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Gabriella F. Eggers

Gabriella F. Eggers, 67, of Princeton died November 25 at the University Medical Center of Princeton, surrounded by her family. The cause of her death was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Daughter of Ann T. Reed of Skillman, and the late Samuel C. Finnell, Jr., Gay was born in Charleston, S.C. and educated at the MacDuffie School, Centre College, and Hartwell House in Aylesbury, U.K. She was an editorial assistant at Scribner’s, worked for the CUNY Center for Social Research, was a field researcher for System Sciences, and spent 20 years as program manager in the linguistics program at Princeton University. She was a member of the Present Day Club of Princeton.

She is survived by her mother; her devoted husband L. Christopher B. Eggers of Princeton, and her beloved daughter Ann T. Eggers of Brooklyn, N.Y.; her sister Rebecca Finnell and brother-in-law Francois Vuilleumier of Piermont, N.Y.; sister Ann Finnell and brother-in-law Peter Tomlinson of Edison; her brother Samuel C. Finnell III and sister-in-law Molly Finnell of Skillman; and her loving nieces and nephews.

Services will be private.

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Lucile Coffey Wade

Lucile Coffey Wade, long time resident of Princeton, passed away peacefully at her home in Princeton, after an extended period with cancer. She was 85 years old.

Her husband Alfred M. Wade, predeceased her in February 25, 1980.

Lucile was born in Plainfield, Connecticut on January 30, 1927. In 1949, she moved to Princeton and worked as a head secretary at the Textile Research Institute (TRI).

She married Alfred M. Wade on April 26, 1957, and the following year, had a son, James M. Wade, born November 26, 1958.

Lucile is survived by her son, James M. Wade, 53, of Princeton, a sister, Catherine A. Coffey, 91, residing at Ashlar Village Retirement Facility, in Wallingford, Connecticut, and a step-daughter, Molly McGrath, 74, of New York City, from a previous marriage of Alfred M. Wade.

There was a private interment and service at 1 p.m., on November 28, 2012 at All Saints Church Cemetery in Princeton.