William David McCloskey

William David McCloskey, 88, known as Dave to all that knew him, passed away peacefully on Saturday May 2, 2020 at RWJUH in Hamilton, NJ.

Dave was born on July 22, 1931. He was a lifelong Princeton resident and the youngest of seven children. Dave was a devoted member of St. Paul’s Parish. He attended St. Paul’s School and graduated from Princeton High School in 1950.

Dave and his three brothers all served in the Armed Forces with Dave proudly serving as a United States Marine. Dave worked for over 30 years as a supervisor in the Princeton University Housing Department. He spent countless falls and winters cheering for the Tigers at Princeton football and basketball games.

Dave met his beautiful wife Bridie when she immigrated from Ireland to the United States at a picnic in Trenton. They married in 1960 and had two children, Kevin and Missy. Dave loved his family and friends. He enjoyed the outdoors, sports, especially golf, and vacationing on Long Beach Island with his family. He enjoyed shopping and was known for his sweet tooth! Dave was a member of the Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad and a proud member and past Chief of Engine Company #1 for over 50 years. Dave was also a member of American Legion Post 76 and each Memorial Day he placed thousands of flags beside Veterans’ graves in Princeton area cemeteries.

Dave was predeceased by his parents Thomas and Margaret (Murphy) McCloskey; sisters Veronica Luttmann, Cecelia Johnson, and Rita McCloskey; brothers Robert, Thomas, and Leo McCloskey; his loving son Michael (Kevin) and wife Mary (Bridie) McCloskey. Dave is survived by his daughter Maureen (Missy) and son-in-law Ken Bruvik of Skillman; grandchildren Kelly and Ryan; and sister-in-law Margaret McCloskey of Plainsboro, and several nieces and nephews.

Dave spent his last few years at Brookdale Hamilton Assisted Living and the family would like to offer their sincere thanks to all of the associates and caregivers for their love and care shown. It will be forever appreciated.

Dave was laid to rest May 5th at Princeton Cemetery in a private graveside service.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Paul’s Church, 216 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ.

Arrangements are under the direction of Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.

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Ethelyn C. (Peg) Volz

Ethelyn C. (Peg) Volz of Toms River passed away on May 1, 2020 at Bey Lea Nursing and Rehab Center. She was 100.

Born in Jobstown, NJ, on April 1, 1920, Peg was the widow of Princeton University coach R. Jack Volz. She was mother of the late Thomas Volz and daughter-in-law Bonnie Volz.
The daughter of the late Gertrude and George Mantell, Peg was a 1937 graduate of Pemberton High School. She lived in Princeton for 30 years before moving to Pinellas Park, FL, and then back to New Jersey.

She is survived by a son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Catherine Volz of Toms River, NJ; a son and daughter-in-law Roger and June Volz of Penne, Italy; grandchildren Robert, Debbie, David, Sharon, Cristin, Richard, Brian, and Alyx; and great-grandchildren Nicholas, Meghan, Justine, Ella, Lauren, Hannah, Abigail, Robert, Richard, and Andrew.

She was the sister of the late Mable Prickett, Mildred Letts, Arlene Gaskil, Harold Mantell, Irving Mantell, Gerald Mantell, Sylvia Sloane, and Loris Haines.

Cremation and inurnment in Ewing Cemetery will be held privately.

Arrangements by the Perinchief Chapels, Mount Holly. www.perinchief.com.

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Naomi Jury Chandler-Reik

Naomi Jury Chandler-Reik, a gifted pianist and piano teacher, passed away on Saturday, May 9, 2020. She had been a resident of Princeton since 1951. She was born on September 5, 1920.

Naomi was born in Canton, Ohio, the younger daughter of Dr. and Mrs. N. J. Jury. Her father was a general physician who made house calls. Her only sibling was her sister Ruth, who was 11 years older. Naomi’s musicality was first evidenced when she was about four years old. “When I heard the piano, I’d run from wherever I was and sit on the bench with Ruth as she practiced.”

She graduated from Canton McKinley High School, and attended the College of Wooster where she studied piano with Clarice Parmelee. “She was the best teacher I ever had. She was a whiz, and the most marvelous sight-reader ever.” It was at Wooster that she met her first husband, Charles H. Chandler. He was a violin student of Ms. Parmelee’s husband.

Naomi and First Lieutenant Chandler married during World War II. After the war, they moved to Princeton because Chandler, a physicist, was hired by RCA. Most Princeton residents thought RCA was a factory or a warehouse, while it was actually a top-notch research institution. They built one of the first commercial buildings on Route 1.

Originally the Chandlers lived in Stanworth Apartments, but they were asked to leave because Naomi’s constant piano practicing bothered the neighbors. Naomi and Charles designed and built a house on Westcott Road. The living room is the same dimension, in scale, as the Boston Concert Hall.

Naomi studied at Juilliard with James Friskin. Later, he hired her to teach piano and piano pedagogy at Chautauqua, the educational and cultural center in New York State.

Charles Chandler was a very fine violinist, and he and Naomi played together for Einstein once. It was at Tiffin Harper’s house and they played Mozart’s Sonata for Violin and Piano. She said, “I’ll never forget it. In the middle, I looked up and there he was! Einstein looked exactly as expected.”

After her first year of teaching piano in Princeton, Naomi had no dearth of students. Some years she was teaching about 40 students, and she taught hundreds in the course of her career. Ten were accepted to Princeton University.

Albert Spaulding was America’s first concert violinist. Andre Benist, a French pianist, was to play Cesar Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano with him. He hired Naomi to coach and prepare him for the recital.

Naomi and Charles divorced and several years later, in 1971, she met and married Louis Reik. He was a psychiatrist who worked for Princeton University at McCosh Health Center, treating both students and faculty. Louis was a friend of Merrill Knapp, a professor of music at Princeton, who referred him to Naomi for piano lessons. Generally she didn’t teach adult beginners; she had gotten tired of saying, “No, you’re not stupid.” But Reik wasn’t really a beginner; he could play a Bach 2 Part Invention quite well, so she took him on. They were married until he died in 1989.

Naomi had four Steinway pianos in her house, and throughout her life, she enjoyed playing four hands with friends with whom she got along with pianistically. She played often with Merrill Knapp and Jean Couts. Naomi was gifted with a very long reach between her fingers.

She was a member of the Present Day Club for 50 years, where she gave an annual recital. Brahms was always a favorite. For 10 years, Naomi was a docent at the Princeton University Art Museum.

She is the author of Piano Games, an instructional book for piano beginners.

A memorial service will be held in the future when it is appropriate.

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Patricia Tindall Tantum

Patricia Tindall Tantum, a lifelong Princeton-area resident, passed away on May 4, 2020, due to the effects of COVID-19. She leaves behind her husband of nearly 68 years, Stanley William Tantum; brother Barry Tindall of Falls Church, VA, brother Wayne Tindall of Edinburg, NJ, and sister Marilyn Bergen of San Diego, CA; her three children, Robin Carter of San Diego, Bruce Tantum of New York City, Debra Kuser and her husband J. Ward Kuser of Lawrence Township; and a granddaughter, Juliana Kuser of North Brunswick.

Born November 27, 1931, Patricia grew up in Edinburg and attended Dutch Neck Elementary School, Princeton High School, and Rider College. After graduation in 1952, she married Stanley, from nearby Windsor. After briefly residing in Princeton, she and Stanley moved to Dutch Neck, where they stayed until 1977. Following time spent in Hamilton and Lawrence Townships, she had had been living with Stanley at the Acorn Glen assisted-living facility in Princeton since 2016.

A devoted mother and wife, Patricia served as a full-time homemaker and mother until the early 70s. Later, she was employed by the Junction Pharmacy, Princeton Medical Group, and Princeton Theological Seminary. A longtime congregant at Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church and member of the Ladies Auxiliary of the West Windsor Fire Department, she enjoyed socializing with her friends; spending summers along the seaside in Manasquan, NJ; traveling, with Florida among her favorite destinations; and dogs, especially dachshunds.

Patricia will be loved and remembered by her family and many friends. A memorial service celebrating her life will be held at a later date. Please visit Patricia’s permanent memorial site at www.saulfuneralhomes.com. We encourage all to share memories, words of comfort, or leave a message of condolence for the family.

Arrangements are under the direction of the A.S. Cole Son & Co. Funeral Home, 22 North Main Street, Cranbury, NJ.

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Betsy Howe Smith

Betsy Howe Smith died peacefully of a chronic condition on April 29, 2020 at Stone Bridge continuing care facility in Skillman, New Jersey. She was 94 years old.

Betsy was raised in Pennington, New Jersey, the daughter of William Peyton and Evelyn Howe. She graduated from Miss Fine’s School and attended Wellesley College. During World War II, she was a typist in a factory producing the Douglass Dauntless, a naval scout plane.

In June of 1946, she married James Boyd Smith at Princeton University Chapel. They reared four children Brett, Derek, Lane, and Tenbroeck Smith. Starting in Princeton, they moved to Texas for a few years, before returning to Princeton where they became longtime residents. Betsy was highly engaged in the Princeton community serving on the Vestry of Trinity Church, as a volunteer for the Arts Council of Princeton, and engaging in many other activities. She was an avid gardener, Bridge player, and a lifelong lover of crossword puzzles.

Betsy expressed her love of family in many ways. She had little experience cooking when first married. Through time and perseverance, using the methods and recipes of chefs such as Julia Child and Craig Claiborne, she gave her family and fortunate dinner guests five-star meals. She always found a place at the table for unexpected guests, and often invited those away from their families for holidays. Conversation at the dinner table was lively and engaging, due in no small part to Betsy’s outstanding conversational skills. She organized family trips to the Cotswold’s, Western Ireland, and other places. A loving mother, she helped her children overcome the obstacles which life entails and provided them with opportunities to grow.

With her children reared, Betsy returned to college in the 1970s, receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers University. She joined Phi Beta Kappa reflecting her lifelong love of learning. Continuing at Rutgers School of Social Work, she received a Master of Social Work. She then pursued post-graduate training at the Philadelphia Child and Family Training Center, ultimately becoming a practicing Licensed Clinical Social Worker, working at Catholic Charities to provide counseling for those in need. Respecting the confidentiality of her clients, she spoke little of her professional experiences but, years later, a former client attested to the value of the counseling she provided.

Most importantly, she will be remembered as a caring and devoted mother and mother-in-law. She is survived by her daughter Lane and her sons Brett and Tenbroeck, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. A celebration of her life will take place later in the year.

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Richard Williams

Richard Williams, of Princeton, passed away on April 28th at the age of 92 after a long illness. Richard was born in Chicago, IL in 1927, the youngest child of Nadia and Frank Browne Williams. He lived in Montpelier, Ohio, with his Aunt Fanny and Uncle William Shatzer and cousin, Bill. Following graduation from high school, he enlisted in the U. S. Navy.

After his discharge in 1946, he attended Miami University of Ohio, graduating with an A.B. degree in chemistry, and continued his studies at Harvard, receiving a PhD in Physical Chemistry in 1954. Richard then served a year in the US Army at the Army Chemical Center in Edgewood, MD, before becoming a chemistry instructor at Harvard for the next three years. He joined RCA Laboratories in 1958 where he spent the rest of his career, eventually becoming a Fellow of the Laboratories.

His work with liquid crystals was pivotal in the development of liquid crystal display (LCD) technology. In 1962 he discovered that liquid crystals exhibited unusual electro-optic  characteristics that could be used to generate patterns by applying voltage. He referred to these patterns as “domains” — a phenomenon that is now known as “Williams Domains.” This finding opened the door to the potential of utilizing liquid crystals as elements for display devices.

Richard also enjoyed meeting and collaborating with colleagues around the world. His travels included stays in Zurich, Switzerland (where he was a visiting scientist at the RCA Zurich Laboratory in 1963), Sao Carlos, Brazil (Fulbright Lecturer, 1969), and teaching as a summer school lecturer at the National Polytechnical Institute in Mexico in 1972. Later in his career he made several trips to China where he lectured at the Chinese Institute of Electronics, as well as visiting the University of Inner Mongolia to attend a meeting about rare earths.

In addition to his teaching, he made a point of learning all he could about the culture and languages of the countries he visited. He taught himself Portuguese, and wrote the textbook in that language that was used for his course in Brazil.  He later studied Chinese to prepare for his visits to that country, and continued studying the language in later years.

After his retirement, Richard remained curious and engaged with the world around him from following national and international news, writing occasional articles for the American Physical Society newsletter, to observing the backyard wildlife at his home. He was also interested in the environment and volunteered with the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association.

Richard is survived by his wife, Alma, and their three children Elena, Cristina (husband Joseph Helms), and Matthew, as well as several nephews and nieces. He was a longtime member of All Saints’ Church of Princeton, NJ. A memorial will be held at a future date.

In lieu of flowers, the family would be honored to have charitable contributions in his memory made to a local conservation organization of your choice, or to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (xerces.org).