Alice Gering Schannel

Alice Gering Schannel, 77, of Princeton, passed away on March 8, 2013, at Compassionate Care Hospice at St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, after a courageous battle with cancer.

She was a wonderful mother, cook, and accomplished pianist. She made every holiday special and instilled in her children an abiding love of animals, music, Avon by the Sea, and the New York Yankees. She loved horses and thoroughbred racing and was granted special visitations with Triple Crown winner Secretariat.

Born in Hamilton, she graduated from Trenton High School with honors. She worked for both RCA and Burroughs Corporation, where she would meet her future husband. After raising her family, she joined our father at the Mercer County Board of Social Services, becoming a supervisor as well as president of the local AFSCME. After retirement, she moved to Newtown, Pa. and eventually back to Princeton where our father was born and raised.

She was predeceased by her husband Donald A. Schannel Sr., daughter Wendy Sue, parents Katherine and Rudolph Gering and brother, Dr. Rudolph Gering.  She is survived by daughters Donna Schannel of Princeton, Kathryn Fenton and husband Scott of Colts Neck N.J.; Victoria Sweeney and husband Joseph of Sicklerville N.J., Cynthia Bruzgo of Bethlehem Pa., her son Donald Schannel Jr. and partner Paul Leighton of Trenton, her brother
Ronald Gering and wife Connie of New Hope, Pa. and sister-in-law, Joan Gering of Ewing.  She is also survived by grandchildren Ryan Fenton and wife Nicole, Kyle Fenton, Alexander, Sarah and Abigail Sweeney, and Kelsey and Joseph Bruzgo. In addition, she is survived by nephews Lawrence, Matthew and Benjamin Gering, and nieces Marla Gering, Teri Rhodes, Missie Parrey, and Kelie Schannel.

A viewing will be held at the Kimble Funeral Home located at 1 Hamilton Aveue, Princeton, on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 from 5 to 8 p.m.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Paul RC Church, 214 Nassau Street Princeton, on Thursday at 10:45 a.m. Private burial will follow in St. Paul Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Compassionate Care Hospice Foundation, 11 Independence Way, Newark Del., 19713 or S.A.V.E. Animal Shelter, 900 Herrontown Rd., Princeton, N.J. 08540.

Express condolences at TheKimbleFuneralHome.com.

Jeanne Pasley Messer

Jeanne Pasley Messer, age 95, of Skillman, passed away on February 16, 2013. Born in South Orange, New Jersey in 1918, she was involved in the arts since early childhood. She studied drawing, painting, and anatomy at the Art Students League in New York City for two years and also at the American Art School in New York City. She worked in oil painting, watercolor, drawing, and sculpture throughout her life. She also taught sculpture at the Princeton Art Association, was Artist-in-Residence at the Johnson Atelier, and taught in her own studio as well.

Pasley Messer was a member of the Salmagundi Club, Catherine Lorrilard Wolfe Art Club, National League of American Pen Women, TAWA, the Princeton Art Alliance, and the National Sculpture Society. Beginning in the 1960’s Pasley Messer’s work won many prizes, including the New Jersey State Juried Show, the State Exhibition at the Montclair Museum, the Ateneo Puertorriquene, The Yardley Art Association, and the Somerset Art Association. The National Sculpture Society awarded her the Witco-Kendall Prize in 1980.

Collections of her work appear at the Ponce Museum in Puerto Rico; University of Puerto Rico’s School of Architecture; Kreps School, East Windsor; Thomas Fitzwater School, Dresher, Pa.; E.T.S., Princeton; Garden Center, Stockbridge, Mass.; the Carrier Foundation, Belle Mead; and many private collections. Her bust of Earnest Hemingway is on display at the Princeton University Library and at Charles Scribner’s Sons New York headquarters.

“I like to capture a fleeting moment in nature and in the human form to create an atmosphere, to establish a mood, “ Pasley Messer said in an interview. “I like to show the inner life with a sweep of the hair or a glance of the eye. The feelings that spring from my first glimpse of the subject will be my chief guide as I work.”

Pasley Messer was predeceased by her husband William Pasley who died in 1971; later by her second husband Behrends Messer, Jr., who died in 2006; and a daughter Marianne Pasley, who died in 1999. She is survived by three children, John Pasley; Sally Pasley Vargas of Massachusetts; James Michael Pasley of Kentucky; a sister, Mary O’Neill of New Jersey, a brother Edward Barkhorn of Florida; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial Mass will be held on Friday, March 15, at 10 a.m. at the Princeton University Chapel.