Richard F. Collier, Jr.

Richard F. Collier, Jr., 63, of Belle Mead, passed away on Christmas Day. Rich was born in Teaneck, to the late Richard and Catherine Collier. A graduate of Bergen Catholic High School, Harvard College (cum laude), and Boston University School of Law, he served two years as a law clerk for a federal judge in Trenton before spending 36 years in private practice specializing in litigating sophisticated commercial disputes.

He served as president of the Somerset County Bar Association; chairman of the Ethics Committee for Hunterdon, Somerset and Warren Counties; chairman of the Federal Practice Committee of the State Bar Association; member of the Lawyers Advisory Committee for the federal courts in New Jersey; and member of the New Jersey State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Since 1989, Rich served as president of the Legal Center for Defense of Life, a non-profit organization providing legal services to protect human life, from conception to natural death, especially the life of the unborn baby in the womb.

As one of the state’s premiere pro-life lawyers, Rich was involved in numerous high-profile cases, including his 1997 appointment by a Superior Court judge to represent an unborn baby and his appointment by the State Legislature to defend its statute banning partial-birth abortion, also in 1997.

But of all his achievements, Rich was proudest of his family. He was the devoted husband of Janet A. Collier for 36 years and the beloved father of Megan Reilly and her husband Michael, Sean Collier and his wife Kelly, and Matthew Collier and his wife Shannon. He was the dear brother of Robert Collier and the late Brian Collier. Rich is also survived by six loving grandchildren: John (Jack), Daniel, Mark, William, Matthew, and a child due in July. He was a good, faith-filled man, known for his kindness and generosity, who will be sorely missed. The family gathered with their family and friends for the Funeral Mass at St. Paul Roman Catholic Church, 214 Nassau St., Princeton, on Monday, December 30, at 10 a.m. Interment followed at St. Hedwig’s Cemetery, Ewing, N.J. The family received their relatives and friends at Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, 40 Vandeventer Avenue, Princeton, on Sunday, December 29, from 2 to 6 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts can be made in Rich’s name to the Legal Center for Defense of Life, 14 Franklin Street, Morristown, N.J.; Life Choices, 156 S. Main St., Phillipsburg, N.J.; or Good Counsel Homes, P.O. Box 6068, Hoboken, N.J.

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Norma Edith Ende

With her entire immediate family at her side, Norma Edith Ende died on Thursday night, December 19, 2013 at her Princeton Landing home in Plainsboro. Pancreatic cancer took her life quickly, but not before she had the opportunity to share with friends and family laughs and stories about a joyful life filled with extensive travel throughout the world and a career as the “most caring and doting mother, grandmother, and wife imaginable,” in the words of one of her grandsons.

Even though she was known professionally as a chef, caterer, educator, and culinary artist, she took great pride and joy in focusing her cooking and emotional and intellectual efforts on her family and many friends. Known for a beautiful smile and a personality to match her pleasing demeanor, she never voiced a word of self pity or anger about her illness, only worried about the welfare of her family members when she would no longer be there for them.

Born Norma Edith Rosenblatt on July 26, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York, she married her high school sweetheart Howard S. Ende who survives her. She is also survived by sons Douglas and Adam; daughter Carolyn Margo; daughters-in-law Karen, Ana, Marife, and Yuchen; and grandsons Duncan, Ezra, Phoenix, and LingLing. A Princeton area resident for more than four decades, she worked as a chef at several area restaurants, was co-owner and executive chef at The Cranbury Food Sampler, and general manager and executive chef at Z’s restaurant in Trenton. Her travels throughout the United States, Mexico and Central America, Europe, Asia and Africa were used as opportunities to expand her knowledge about diverse culinary traditions and cultures, as well as to learn about the challenges of survival that people face all over the globe.

Norma’s compassion, generosity and selflessness defined her approach to life. She especially loved children, and they invariably returned that love to her. Whenever she visited someone or someplace where there would be children, she always brought toys and food treats for them. She was always being surrounded and hugged by the children of her friends and family, by the pre-schoolers whom she taught in Princeton, by the Masai children in Kenya, where she often traveled, and especially by her own grandchildren who adored her.

There has been a private inurnment; a memorial service will be scheduled for the spring. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Grounds for Sculpture, a serene local oasis of beauty she and her family enjoyed many times over many years. www.grounds
forsculpture.org

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Howard Lahman Arnould

H.L. Arnould was born in Iowa to Lela Lahman and Charles Arnould, but lived his early years on a farm near Franklin Grove, Illinois. In his teens, after the untimely death of his father, he and his mother moved to Chicago. He attended University High School and matriculated early to the University of Chicago. It was at University High where he met, but did not court his eventual wife Susannah Steele. Her mother, as he used to say, was not willing to permit her to date until she went to college. He was in a fraternity with his eventual brother-in-law the late Robert Brumbaugh. It was there that he received the nickname Butch because one of the brother’s insisted the fraternity had always had a brother nicknamed Butch. He majored eventually in math but always praised the University’ generalist undergraduate core. He ran track, played tennis, and did the things students do. But soon he and my mother graduated and married.

The war took my father into the Navy, where thanks to a slight physical deficiency he was placed in naval intelligence. He was always glad that his naval work often led to fewer casualties rather than more. Butch and Sue passed the war years in Washington, where she served as a candy striper. After the war, he earned a Master’s degree in economics from the Illinois Institute of Technology. They then resided in Washington and he went to work for the fledgling National Security Administration. In 1952-1953, he was seconded to GCHQ outside of Cheltenham in the U.K. where he was joined by his wife and new son, Eric John.

Upon the family’s return from England, they soon moved to rural Maryland to a new home more convenient to Butch’s office. There they welcomed daughter Katherine Jane into the family in 1955. In later years, he revealed that one of his proudest accomplishments at NSA was conveying intelligence to key advisors to President Kennedy that led to a reduction in tensions during the Cuban missile crisis. They resided there until 1971.

Butch was active in the elementary school PTA, the Unitarian Universalist Church, and other progressive causes. Numerous friends in the neighborhood and from work brought fun into the home such as highly competitive bridge games. Vacations were often spent traveling the U.S. and with Sue’s sister’s family in New Haven, Conn. Butch enthusiastically promoted Eric and Katie’s horseback riding careers. He finished his own career on loan to the Institute for Strategic Studies at Princeton University gleefully retiring at the age of 55.

They took full advantage of life in Princeton frequently attending concerts and the theatre. Butch had a second career as a world class philatelist winning many top awards for his postal history collections devoted to the Danish West Indies. He and Sue travelled around the world twice, visiting many exotic spots including the Sepik River in New Guinea and visiting son Eric in West Africa. He continued to be active in the Unitarian Church of Princeton serving in many capacities in that organization. For many years he and Sue delivered for Meals on Wheels.

Butch and Sue moved into successively smaller homes, wisely downsizing as they aged. Fourteen years ago they moved to the Windrows facility just outside of Princeton where they enjoyed making new friends and participating in many activities in the community there. They were proud to have made late life choices that contributed to the quality of their own lives and those of their children and grandchildren.

H.L. Arnould is survived by his son Eric, his daughter Katie, and her husband Patrick Vance; and their four grandchildren, Austen Arnould, Alex Crespo, Jeffrey Crespo, and Colette (Basil) Price, as well as his nephew Robert Brumbaugh, his nieces Susan Tsantiris and Johanna Snelling, and their spouses and children.

A memorial service will be held on January 4, 2014 at 5 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton, Route 206 at Cherry Hill Road, Princeton. Arrangements are under the direction of The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.

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Yolanda Dalle Pezze

Yolanda Dalle Pezze, 99, of Princeton, passed away on Sunday, December 29, 2013 at Acorn Glen Assisted Living Residence in Princeton.

Born to John and Mary Micai on July 3, 1914 in Rosedale, Miss., she grew up in Trenton, where she attended St. James School.

After moving to Princeton, she worked as a cook and cashier at the Littlebrook School cafeteria for many years and she thoroughly enjoyed seeing and interacting with the children every day. Yolanda was a long-time parishioner of St. Paul Catholic Church and was a member of its Altar Rosary Society.

While she enjoyed cooking, crocheting, and traveling with her husband, her greatest pleasure was being surrounded by her family.

Yolanda was the beloved wife of the late Angelo Dalle Pezze. She was also predeceased by her parents; brothers, Virgilio, Gus, Louis, Livio, Aldo and Lino Micai; her sister Stella Lanzoni; granddaughter Christina Dalle Pezze; and a daughter-in-law Joanne Dalle Pezze.

She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law John and Georgia Dalle Pezze; daughter and son-in-law Rita and Vincent Boccanfuso; four grandchildren, Peter Dalle Pezze and wife Stacey, John Dalle Pezze, Jr. and wife Kimberly, Lynn Azarchi and husband Gabriel, Beth Bokop and husband Deron; five great grandchildren, Grace, Annabel, Trey, and Blake Dalle Pezze and Madison Azarchi; two step-great grandchildren, Christian and Cole Bokop, a sister Abbie Lombardo, a sister-in-law Jenne Micai, and many nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will begin on Friday, January 3, 2014 at 10:15 a.m. in the Kimble Funeral Home, 1 Hamilton Avenue, Princeton, followed by a 10:45 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial at St. Paul Catholic Church, 214 Nassau Street, Princeton, N.J., 08542. Burial will be at St. Paul Church Cemetery.

Visiting hours at the funeral home will be from 8:15 a.m. until 10:15 a.m. on Friday, prior to services.

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Matilda Zlotnick Kapelsohn

Matilda Kapelsohn passed away peacefully in her home at Stonebridge of Montgomery on Monday, December 9, 2013.

Matilda was born July 19, 1914 in Newark, to Russian immigrant parents. She graduated from South Side High School in Newark (1931), N.J. State Normal School of Newark (1934), and Newark State College (1962), eventually earning a Bachelor of Arts in Education. Matilda was a lunchroom aid, and playground supervisor off and on from 1939 until 1985 in the public elementary schools of Maplewood and Caldwell N.J. where she lived during those years. She was also a full-time homemaker, wife, mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

Matilda was an artist and a master at needlecrafts, winning numerous blue ribbons for her knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and painting. She was also an athlete, competing in and winning awards in archery, tennis, and the decathlon. Most of all she loved being with children.

In 1986 she moved to the Princeton area to be closer to family. Matilda remained active in senior groups and as a volunteer in the Princeton public schools until very recently.

Matilda is survived by her three children; Marjorie DeStefano of Lawrenceville, Lois (Marc) Klaben of Princeton, and Emanuel (Barrie) Kapelsohn of Folgelsville, Pa.; six grandchildren; Joshua Weiner, Michael Weiner, Rachel Webster, Rebecca Etz, Katherine Kapelsohn, and Emily Kapelsohn; and six great-grandchildren; Eli, Gus, Julia, Noah, Lucy, and Tabitha.

A private service was held on December 12, 2013 in Clifton, N.J.