Kathleen Nelles McClure

Kathleen Nelles McClure, 87, died on October 26th, 2018 in Portland, Maine. She had been a resident at Piper Shores in Scarborough, Maine since 2006.

Kay, as she was known, grew up in Rockville Center, NY, the only daughter of Roy and Kathleen Nelles, and the sister to three brothers, Roy, Barry, and Peter. A self-proclaimed “tomboy,” she was always picked first for any team game in school or the neighborhood. She graduated from Connecticut College in 1952. It was there that she met her future husband, Doug McClure, a Yale student, on a blind date. They proceeded to spend the next 54 years together, continuously moving westward as their lives took them from Pomfret, Connecticut to Congers, New York to Princeton, New Jersey to Sewickley, Pennsylvania and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Eventually they returned east and retired to Maine, a state dear to both their hearts and which they had come back to every year after spending a summer studying the Russian language at Colby College in 1962.

Kay was a true “Renaissance woman,” who was equally adept using a lathe as she was with a needle. She was an avid miniaturist, expert cruciverbalist, and a “hostess with the mostess.” She loved gardens, traveling, mysteries, and artists of all types. Over the years, Kay was involved in many organizations, including the Rome Yacht Club, of which she was the founding commodore, and the Manamore artists’ group of Minnesota.

Kay is predeceased by her husband, brothers, and parents. She is survived by her sister-in-law Mary Lou Nelles; children Kathy Lowell, Ann Noel, Douglas McClure and Peter McClure and their spouses; as well as her eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, who all knew her affectionately as Meemah.

Kay was a loving and creative soul, who was always ready for anything and happiest when she was with family and friends. She played by her own rules and lived a full life.

A memorial service will be held in Princeton, New Jersey on December 8th, 2018. In lieu of flowers, please feel free to honor Kay with a donation to the Maine Community Foundation, Rome Scholarship Fund, 245 Main St. Ellsworth, Maine 04605.

Arrangements entrusted to Hobbs Funeral Home, South Portland ME. Online condolences may be expressed at www.hobbsfuneralhome.com.

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Millard M. Riggs, Jr.

Millard M. Riggs, Jr., age 76, of Princeton, New Jersey, died on Friday, November 9, 2018 surrounded by his family. He was a proud resident of Princeton for 37 years.

The family held a private graveside service at Princeton cemetery with Pastor David Davis, Dr. Allison Boden, and The Reverend Paul Jeanes III officiating. 

Millard was born on July 9, 1942, in Durham, North Carolina, elder son to the late Dr. Millard. M. Riggs and the late Letha Mae Cagle. Millard grew up in Morganton, NC, graduating from Morganton High School. He attended Duke University and graduated from Dickinson College with degrees in Organic Chemistry and Psychology.

He went to work immediately with the Celanese Corporation, holding key management positions in the Specialty Chemical Division. He served as President of the Specialty Chemical Trade Association and was President of Wilmington Chemical Corporation, a specialty polymer manufacturer with worldwide sales in Wilmington, Delaware. Professionally, Millard transitioned in 1981 when he joined Merrill Lynch for 27 years in Princeton. He was recruited to Smith Barney’s Princeton/Lawrenceville office where he was First Vice President of their Wealth Management division.

Millard had many community interests that included Friends of the Princeton University Library, Chair of the Princeton YMCA Executive Club, Vice Chair of Princeton Township Zoning Board of Adjustment, and Vice Chair of the Council for the Princeton University Concerts Committee. His past leadership positions include Chairman of the Princeton Family YMCA, President of the Princeton Rotary Club, Trustee of Stoney Brook Watershed Association, and Finance Committee Member for the Nassau Presbyterian Church. He also co-founded Job Seekers, a venture of Trinity and Nassau Churches. He received the Volunteer of the Year Award from the YMCA Brandywine Region in 1991, the Paul Harris Award in 1991, and the Francis G. Clark Award in 1989.

Millard was a man that enjoyed every aspect of life as he traveled the world, had an abiding love of music, and was an avid collector of rare and antiquarian books. He formed deep, meaningful relationships with people all over the world and always made a positive impact on everyone he met. He had a tremendous ability to cultivate in nature with appreciation of beautiful gardens, and seeing all of God’s creatures. Millard was generous to others in need and an inspiration and role model to all ages. He derived great pleasure from all his activities with Grolier Club of New York, The Caxton Club in Chicago, The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City, and the Brandywine Museum in Chadds Ford, PA. He was a member of Nassau Presbyterian Church, Princeton, NJ.

Beloved survivors include Jinous Jafari, life partner who resides at the home along with his loving children Elizabeth Riggs Pace of Louisville, KY, and David Wilson Riggs of Livingston, MT; brother David Lee Riggs (Marie) of Fuquay Varina, NC; sisters Nancy Mazza (Mark) of Greensboro, NC, and Jan Riddle (Lee) of Durham, NC; and two grandchildren Emily Elizabeth Pace of Charlotte, NC, and Grayson Glenn Pace of Louisville, KY.  Millard has nieces and nephews along with great nieces and great nephews and the special children of Jinous that include Yash Jafari of New York City and Idin Jafari of Princeton, NJ.

His Labradors Lady and Aspen were dear companions to him. 

The family thanks the entire medical team from Princeton Medical Center and Capital Health Medical Center for their professional service and gracious attention to his care. 

Memorials may be directed to K9 Care Montana, Inc. PO Box 490, Livingston, MT 59047 (www.K9CareMontana.org) or to the charity of your choice.

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Joseph Dresner

Joseph Dresner, of Princeton, NJ, died on November 7, 2018. He was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1927. After serving in the U.S. Army, he received B.S.E. and M.S. degrees in Engineering-Physics from the University of Michigan in 1949 and 1950, respectively, and a Ph.D. in Physics from New York University in 1958. From 1950 to 1954, he worked in medical physics, improving the use of high energy X-rays in cancer therapy. He joined RCA Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey in 1958, where he worked until retiring in 1995. His basic research involved almost every electronic property of vitreous and organic semiconductors, particularly in thin films. He was also active in device work in the areas of solar energy, television displays, and thin film transistor circuits.

Dr. Dresner was a fellow of the American Physical Society and the author of 44 scientific papers, and he was granted 10 U.S. patents. During the 1971-1972 academic year, he was Visiting Professor at the Institute for Physics and Chemistry in São Carlos, Brazil. He and his family came to have much love for the people of that country and made many long-lasting friendships there.

He enjoyed a long marriage with his beloved wife, Esther, who predeceased him. He was a lover of music who tried to become learned in every aspect of world culture. He was proud of being literate in seven languages. He was a skilled and passionate sailor, often treating his friends to day cruises on his little sloop, “Fleurette.” In his later years, he developed a love of poetry, which gave him comfort after the loss of his wife, and he worked hard at crafting his own poems, over 100 of them.

He leaves behind his daughter, Lisa M. Dresner, and a large network of extended family and friends.

Services were held Sunday, November 11, 2018 at The Jewish Center, Princeton, NJ, with burial in Princeton Cemetery.

Donations in his memory to Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, 72 Escher St, Trenton, NJ 08609, are appreciated.

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Rita Ludlum

Rita Ludlum, a longtime resident of Princeton, passed away suddenly on November 4 at the age of 94 at her residence, Stonebridge at Montgomery.

In addition to raising six children, Rita was a prolific community volunteer, most notably for The League of Women Voters of the Princeton Area, where she was an active member for over 50 years. Her league activities included serving as president in the early 1980s and as co-chair in 2008–2009. The organization created the Rita Ludlum Citizenship Award in her honor. She led the voter registration efforts for many years and until recently was active at the registration table at the farmer’s market in Skillman.

Rita also ran the catechism program at St. Paul Parish, helped produce the curriculum for the Princeton Adult School, organized English classes for spouses of local graduate students, and assisted with the administration and awards for various scholarship funds, among numerous other activities.

She was born and raised in Milford, Massachusetts, the second in the family of four daughters of Bernard and Catherine Byrne Manion. At age 8, she spent most of a year in bed due to rheumatic fever and received the last rites of the Catholic Church before recovering. As an honor student at St. Mary’s High School, she won a local essay contest addressing “Duties and Privileges of Citizenship,” and in another one run by the Ancient Order of Hibernians was runner-up statewide and received honorable mention nationally.

Upon graduating from Regis College in nearby Weston, Massachusetts, she taught high school English in a nearby town for two years. As she wrote in a short biographical sketch a few years ago, “Thinking life could be more interesting, I left for Boston. The Boston theater was the last stop before New York and the second balcony was affordable. I volunteered to teach English as a second language to the many refugees flooding the city.”

In Boston she worked for the American Meteorological Society. She described her work there as chiefly “keeping track of members, helping them with any problems — being nice to members.” One of them was David Ludlum. “I guess I was nice to him,” she wrote, “because in less than a year, we were married and I was off to Philadelphia and New Jersey.” 

David and Rita lived in Holmdel, New Jersey for a few years before moving to Princeton in 1957 where they built a house in the newly developed Riverside area. There she continued raising her children and as their needs subsided, devoted increasing time to community service. David died in 1997 and Rita became one of the original residents of Stonebridge in 2005.

She is survived by five children, the youngest, Kathy, having died from an automobile accident in 1980. They are Ken of Foster City, Calif.; David of Princeton; Peter of Mission Viejo, Calif.; Stephen of Brunswick, Maine; and Carol of Trappe, Pa. There are nine grandchildren; one surviving sister, Dorothy Saunders of Bowie, Maryland; and 12 nieces and nephews.

Memorial services are to be held on November 24 at 11 a.m. at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Skillman, N.J. and January 12 at a time to be announced at Stonebridge.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Catholic Relief Services, 228 W. Lexington St., Baltimore, Maryland 21201-3443.

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Memorial Service
Jerry Lee Crawford

Jerry Lee Crawford, 86, passed away on October 17, 2018 at Atrium Post Acute Care nursing home in Princeton. A memorial service will be conducted on Saturday, November 17, 2018 at First Baptist Church of Princeton, John Street and Paul Robeson Place at 11 a.m., with prior calling hours from 10 to 11 a.m.