Vera Sharpe Kohn

Vera Sharpe Kohn, a resident of Princeton, died of complications from a stroke on October 12, 2014 at the age of 86.

She was born and raised in New York City.

She received a BA in modern European history and political science from Mount Holyoke College, and a Licence from L’Institute des Hautes Etudes Internationales at the University of Geneva. She married Immanuel Kohn on July 22, 1950 and attended Yale Law School with him for one year, where she was one of eight women in a class of approximately 180 law students, before her first child was born.

After law school, her husband joined the law firm Cahill Gordon and Reindel, where he eventually became chairman of the Executive Committee.

The couple lived for a short time in Brooklyn, New York, and from 1954 to 1968 in Westchester, New York, where she taught at the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry and later commuted to Manhattan to work in the Office of Public Information of the United Nations’ Secretariat. They moved to Princeton in the summer of 1968, where she volunteered at the Stony Brook Millstone Watersheds Association, working on the preservation of open space and farmland for several years. She was a docent at the Princeton University Art Museum and on the Board of the Princeton University Concert Committee. She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Club, the Harvard Club, the Nassau Club, the Present Day Club, and the Bedens Brook Club.

Immanuel Kohn, her husband of 62 years, passed away in March 2013. She is survived by four children, Gail, Peter and wife Margaret, Sheila, Robert and wife Susan; and six grandchildren, Megan, Emily, Michael, Jason, Sarah, and Katherine.

Burial services will be private.

The family requests that any gifts in Vera’s honor be sent to the Institute for Advanced Study, the Princeton University Art Museum, or the Princeton University Chamber Concerts.

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Robert Staats-Westover

Robert Staats-Westover, 90, passed away on October 3, 2014. Bob was raised in Bordentown and Hamilton Township. He graduated from Trenton High School, then joined the Marines in 1943 and was honorably discharged in 1946 with the rank of Staff Sergeant. He earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Princeton University in 1950, an MS in plastics engineering from Princeton in 1952, and another MS in engineering mechanics from New York University in 1962.

From 1954 to 1985, Bob was a member of the technical staff of Bell Telephone Labs in the Polymer R&D Department. From 1985 to 1991, he was the manager of the New Jersey Polymer Extension Center at the Polymer Processing Institute at Stevens Institute of Technology, and later served as an engineering consultant at Stevens.

Bob is the author of numerous patents and publications in the polymer field, and from 1963 to 2003, was a Distinguished Service Associate Professor in the graduate and undergraduate schools at Stevens in the departments of mechanical and chemical engineering. He held offices and won awards in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Society of Plastic Engineers, and the American Society for Testing and Materials, and was elected Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers in 1994.

Bob had been an active member of Christ Congregation since moving to Princeton in 1961; and in the community as a scoutmaster and marksmanship instructor for the Princeton P.B.A.

Respect for friends and family was very important to him, as was watching and listening for God’s help wherever he found it. He derived the most joy, as he liked to say, from “just being myself.”

Bob is survived by his wife, Hazel Staats-Westover; his children, Doug, Diane, and Bryce; his stepdaughter, Dawn; 12 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren. Bob was predeceased by his first wife Ann Westover and his stepson Allan Staats Meyners. He was loved by them all.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, October 18, 2014 at 2 p.m. at Christ Congregation, 50 Walnut Lane in Princeton. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that a contribution be made to the cause of your choice.

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Barry H. Caskey

Barry H. Caskey, a longtime Princeton resident and faithful Princetonian, class of 1957, died on Friday in Princeton Hospital of congestive heart failure. He was 78. Barry was a devoted husband of Carol Kirvan Caskey for 46 years, a proud father of four, and a delighted grandfather of seven. He lived and worked as an advertising executive in New York City at agencies including Benton and Bowles, Wells, Rich, Greene, and Norman Craig & Kummel.

Barry and Carol returned to live in Princeton in 1965, and Barry made his professional return to the Princeton area shortly thereafter with Gillespie Advertising in West Windsor, where he worked for over 20 years, retiring as a management supervisor in the late 1990s.

Barry was born November 30, 1935 in Philadelphia, the son of Benjamin R. Caskey and Muriel Hickman, and remained a loyal Philadelphia sports fan throughout his life. He graduated from the Haverford School in 1953, and went on to Princeton University where he graduated cum laude, played basketball, and was a member of Dial Lodge. A life-long devotee of the arts, Barry graduated with a BA in art history and wrote his senior thesis on the work of Gaston Lachaise.

Barry married Carol Kirvan in October of 1961, and was happily married until her death in 2008. Barry and Carol raised their four children, Diana, Dallas, Julie, and Dan in Princeton. An active and devoted Princeton alumnus, Barry served as class president from 1972-1977 and chair of the 15th Reunion in 1972. He received the Class Service Award at his 50th reunion in 2007. He also served on the boards of the Princeton Art Museum and the Rock Brook School in Skillman.

A proud father and thoughtful and devoted grandfather, he is survived by his four children and by his seven grandchildren — Sierra, Liam, Calla, Stella, Jonas, Jasper and Nola.

A service of remembrance will be held this Saturday, October 18, 2014 in Princeton at the Mather Hodge Funeral Home, 40 Vandeventer Avenue, at noon. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent in his name to the Princeton University Art Museum.