June 19, 2024

Obituaries 6/19/2024

Janice Phillips Pell
March 22, 1931 – June 14, 2024

Janice Phillips Pell died just before midnight on Flag Day, June 14, following a day of heavy winds, a brilliant sunset, and a double rainbow. Jan was 93, a resident of Princeton and Pennington, and a member of Trinity Church for the last 45 years.

Raised in Short Hills, NJ, Jan attended the Kent Place School and Smith College before her family moved to NYC in 1951. There she met her husband John, a spirited and smart Princeton graduate Class of ’48. They were married in 1953 and lived the greatest love story for 59 years.

Jan had a short career in adverting at O.S. Tyson NY before the Pells moved to Short Hills, NJ, to raise their family. In 1968 John was offered the opportunity to move to London, England, a position he took as director of the Standard Bank responsible for 17 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Jan traveled below the Sahara and to the Middle East eight times in a liaison capacity with John on business. During this time, she wrote two long “impression” essays of West and South Africa for the International Department of Chase Bank.

At home in London, Jan shifted her focus to mission work and counseling. She served as the head of the American Church in London’s Mission Guild with interests in Africa, Asia, U.K., and the U.S., and served on the church vestry. She helped found the first Marriage Research Centre in England at the Central Middlesex Hospital, serving as one of the five trustees on the board for many years. In 1974 Jan undertook professional training as a psychotherapist for three years and proceeded to help clients through a wide range of challenges including trauma faced from concentration camp internment during World War II. In 1975 Jan chaired the British American Ball which funds the British American Associates’ lecture foundation, an organization that exchanges lecturers between the U.K. and U.S. Jan and John served on the board of directors of this foundation for 10 years.

1979 brought the Pells back to the U.S. They settled in Princeton to share their next chapter with Princeton alumni friends. Jan and John enjoyed the breadth of activities Princeton has to offer from University football games to the communities they joined at Trinity Church, the Nassau Club, and the Bedens Brook Club. Separately Jan was an active member of the Women’s Investment Group, Present Day Club, and the Stony Brook Garden Club.

As a one-year swan song to John’s banking career, the couple moved to Hong Kong, China, in 1992 where John was president of the Bank of Asia. During this time Jan served on the St. John’s Cathedral mission committee responsible for prisoners returning from China.

In life there are flowers, weeds, and gardeners and Jan Pell was most definitely a gardener. She grew and nurtured not only her family and wide group of friends, but built a vast garden at their home on Westcott Road. She enjoyed entertaining the Princeton Class of ’48 in the garden for reunions, counseling friends over a cup of tea on the back patio, and opening her garden for tours. Jan loved her time as a member of Stony Brook Garden Club tremendously and her friends of all generations that she made there.

When Jan wasn’t in her garden, she was often taking trips with clients to the Philadelphia Design Center. Jan Pell Interiors was launched in 1982 and she worked with clients on their interior design needs for the next 23 years.

Over the years, Jan served on the board of directors of Trinity Counseling Service and was an active volunteer at the YWCA extension program as a reader at the Riverside School. At Trinity Church, Jan helped build the Trinity Memorial Garden, donated her famous lemon whiskey cake each year to the Trinity St. Nicholas Bazaar, and was a member of the Altar Guild. Reflecting on the Altar Guild, Jan often told the story of being the last person to leave and lock up the church one Christmas Eve following the midnight service, walking peacefully home to Westcott Road in the falling snow.

Predeceased by her husband John, she is survived by her three children and six grandchildren: Richard and Lisa Pell, Rye, NY, and daughters Roxanna and Lila; Wil and Sandy de Groot, Frenchtown, NJ, and children Sam, Lucinda, and stepchildren Veronique, Eric, and Alex; Leslie Pell, Pennington, NJ, and children Kate and Gibson Linnehan. Also, her niece Sarah Phillips and husband Tom Hatch, Wilton, CT, and their son Nicholas; and her nephew James T. Phillips III, GA.

The family is eternally grateful to Dr Regan Tuder for watching over their mom, and to Lydia Konedu and Cecile Nonez for their nurturing care.

A memorial service will be held at Trinity Church, 33 Mercer Street, Princeton, on Tuesday, July 9 at 11a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to Center at 353 center353.org (formerly Trinity Counseling Service) or the Alzheimer’s Foundation.

Janet A. Westrick

Jan Westrick, founder of the Princeton Girlchoir and the inspiration for the Westrick Music Academy, passed away peacefully under the care of hospice in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on March 13, 2024.

Janet Ann Westrick was born in Hamilton, Ohio, on August 18, 1938 to Joseph Jerome Westrick and Anna Belle (Woodrey) Westrick. A lifelong musician, Jan learned to play the piano at age 9 and continued to hone her gift for music throughout her life.

Jan attended Hamilton High School where she served as the school accompanist. Jan went on to Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, where she sang in the Chapel Choir and studied Music Education, with a major in Piano and a minor in Voice. Upon graduation she began teaching music in the Whitehall, Ohio school system and working as musical director for a local church.

Jan married Tom Oesterling in 1960. They had their first child, Tom Jr., in 1962. In 1966, upon completion of Tom’s Ph.D., the family moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where they had two more children, Jennifer and Daniel. Tom took a job at Johnson and Johnson in 1976 and the family moved to Princeton, NJ.

The marriage broke up in 1980 and Jan raised her two youngest children independently. She taught piano lessons out of the home, and played for the Lutheran Church Prince of Peace, until the opportunity to teach at Princeton Day School was presented to her in 1983.

Jan joined Princeton Day School as music teacher for the Lower School in 1983. She went on to become the Choir Director of the Middle School and was also named Chair of the Music and Performing Arts Department. Jan also worked continuously as a church musician, playing piano and organ to accompany services as well as directing church choirs.

In 1989, when her son Dan was a senior at Princeton High School, Jan attended a performance by the American Boy Choir. She felt that she knew girls who could perform like this and she put an ad in the paper to see if local girls would be interested in joining a group to sing and perform under her choral direction. The response was immediate. Jan selected 27 girls after intensive auditions, and the Princeton Girlchoir was born. The Princeton Girlchoir grew into an organization of several performing and training choirs and they traveled and performed extensively throughout Europe, Canada, and the USA. The mission of the PGC is to provide excellence in choral education and performance opportunities, while inspiring confidence, character, and a lifelong love of making music together.

In 1990, Jan married her love, Fred Schott, who was working as a mental health therapist and clinical director at mental health facilities in central New Jersey. Jan continued to grow and inspire the Girlchoir until 2009, the 20th anniversary, when she retired and became Artistic Director Emerita.

In 2017, after the close of the American Boy Choir, the Princeton Girlchoir decided to include the boys who had been singing in the American Boy Choir. With the inclusion of the boys, the organization was renamed the Westrick Music Academy, after its founder, Jan Westrick.

In 2014, Jan and Fred moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to live near Dan, Jennifer, and granddaughter Evelyn. In Santa Fe, Jan sang with various choral groups and directed choirs at senior-living facilities until the early stages of Alzheimer’s interfered. She was diagnosed in 2018 and began a slow decline until her death on March 13, 2024.

Jan is survived by her husband, Fred Schott, of Santa Fe; her brother, Jim Westrick of Cincinnati, OH, and his wife Mary; her son, Tom Oesterling of Boston, MA; her daughter, Jennifer Oesterling of Albuquerque, NM; her son, Daniel Oesterling of Santa Fe, NM; her only granddaughter, Evelyn Oesterling Mobley of Albuquerque, NM; her son-in-law, John Myers of Albuquerque; and step daughters Lisa Schott of West Windsor, NJ, and Cheryl Schott Zielkowski and her husband Rob Zielkowski, their daughter Lena, of Howell MI, and her most dear college “sister” and friend, Joyce Melchert, as well as many, many dear friends, from Princeton and Santa Fe.

The family would like to acknowledge and thank the staff of Enchanted Sky Hospice, Scott’s House, and Nurses with Heart for their kind, compassionate, and expert care of Jan during the final months of her life. Tom, Jennifer, and Dan would also like to recognize Fred for his unwavering love, honor, and respectful care of our dear mother. Whenever we thanked him for doing so, his response was always, “It’s my privilege.”  Because of his dedicated care, Jan was able to reside at home with Fred until one week before her death, when she moved into Scott’s House.

Jan’s memorial service will be held on Sunday, June 30 at 4 p.m., at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 177 Princeton Hightstown Road, Princeton Junction, NJ 08550. All are welcome to attend.

For those who would like to memorialize Jan, the family suggests making donations to the Westrick Music Academy, 231 Clarksville Road, Suite 8, Princeton Junction, NJ 08550 (westrickmusic.org).

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MEMORIAL SERVICE

Judith McCartin Scheide

The family of Judith McCartin Scheide will hold a service to celebrate her life on June 24, 2024 at 1:30 p.m. in the Princeton University Chapel.

A reception will immediately follow at the Chancellor Green Pavilion, just steps from the Chapel.