Town Topics

Edmond R. Casey

Edmond R. Casey, 57, of Somerville, formerly of Kingston, died suddenly November 27 at home.

Born in Gary, Ind., he moved from Kingston to Somerville in 1975.

An attorney, he was a graduate of Villanova University and Seton Hall University.

He was a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Marines, serving during the Vietnam War, where he was recently awarded the Vietnam 25th Anniversary Commemorative Medal.

He was a communicant of Immaculate Conception Church, a member of the Somerville Elks, and American Legion Post No. 12. He enjoyed woodworking, reading, and running in his spare time.

Predeceased by his mother, Katrin Casey, in 1968, he is survived by his wife, Victoria; three daughters, Katrin, Sarah, and Bridget; his father, Richard J. Casey; and three brothers, Paul, Michael, and Stephen.

Prayers will be said Thursday, December 2, at 10:15 a.m. at the Bruce C. VanArsdale Funeral Home, 101 North Gaston Avenue, Somerville. An 11 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial will follow at Immaculate Conception Church, Somerville. Interment will be in William C. Doyle Veterans Cemetery in Wrightstown.

Visitation will be Wednesday, December 1 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the funeral home.

Memorial Contributions may be made to the Somerville Elks Handicapped Children's Committee, 375 Union Avenue, Bridgewater 08807.

William C. Combs

William C. Combs, M.D., 79, of Southern Pines, N.C., formerly of Princeton, died November 18 at First Health Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst, N.C. The cause was congestive heart failure.

Known as Bill to his friends and family, Dr. Combs had lived in Southern Pines for 24 years.

Born in Rochester, N.Y., he attended the Allendale School in Rochester and Northwood School in Lake Placid, N.Y. He served in the U.S. Navy's V-12 program from 1943 to 1946, receiving his medical training at St. Lawrence University and at the University of Rochester Medical School (M.D., 1949). He completed his internship at Genesee Hospital in Rochester and a residency in anesthesiology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City.

He was called up from the reserves during the Korean conflict, and, taking his family with him, served from 1950 to 1953, first as a Navy doctor with the U.S. Marine Corps in North Carolina, then as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Following his tour of duty, he lived in Tenafly while he completed his residency at Columbia Presbyterian. He subsequently settled in Princeton, where he practiced anesthesiology at St. Francis Hospital in Trenton.

He later embarked on a residency in psychiatry at the New Jersey Neuropsychiatric Institute and the Union County Psychiatric Clinic in Plainfield, choosing the specialty of child psychiatry, a field then in its infancy. In child psychiatry, he found his true calling. He explained the difference between treating adults and children in a 1968 interview: "What the patient does matters more than what he says. One might sum up the difference by saying that a general psychiatrist chips away at a statue while a child psychiatrist hopes to mold clay."

He joined the staff of the Child Guidance Center of Mercer County (now the Family Guidance Center Corporation). While working there, he also served as a consultant to the Princeton Regional Schools, the East Windsor Township Schools, and the Lawrence Township Schools. He was a consultant to the Child Study Program of Ewing Township Schools and Trenton State College. He opened a private practice in 1972. After moving to Southern Pines, he joined the staff of the Sandhills Mental Health Center as a volunteer, one of the few child psychiatrists in the state at the time.

His favorite sport was golf. He was a founding member of Bedens Brook Club in Skillman, and a member of the Country Club of North Carolina. He also enjoyed skeet shooting. He first joined the National Skeet Shooting Association at the age of 13, while a member of the Brooks Avenue Gun Club in Rochester. In 1941, he was Junior runner up at the North American Skeet Shooting Championships. He belonged to the Nassau Gun Club in Princeton.

He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Marjorie Schreib Combs; four daughters, Mary Combs of Gaithersburg, Md., Susan Combs of New York City, Cynthia Combs O'Hara of Chapel Hill, N.C., and Catherine Combs Singer of Morrisville, Pa.; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at the North Auditorium Penick Village on Saturday, December 4, at 2 p.m.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Moore Regional Hospital Foundation, 150 Applecross Road, Pinehurst, N.C. 28374; or to The Penick Village Foundation, P.O. Box 2001, Southern Pines, N.C. 28388.

Jean P. Cootes

Jean Phillips Cootes, 82, of Princeton, died November 24 at home.

A lover of the arts and a friend to scholars, she was the widow of a long-time American diplomat in Florence, Merritt N. Cootes, who died in 1998.

Born in Portland, Oregon, the daughter of Kenneth and Florence Phillips, she attended the University of Oregon, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in music.

After university she began a career in government service, working in postwar Germany in the Foreign Service and on the staff of General Lucius Clay with the United States Occupation Forces. In 1946, on a mission to Moscow, she met her husband-to-be, a Princeton graduate and Foreign Service officer from Virginia. After a wedding in Paris, the couple was assigned to Foreign Service postings in Trieste, Karachi, Algiers, and finally Florence, where Mr. Cootes served as Consul General from 1958 to 1966. In each posting she studied the language of the country ‹ Italian, French, and Urdu ‹ and continued her study of piano. In Florence, she organized many receptions and musical recitals in the consulate's nineteenth-century palazzo on Lungarno Vespucci. When her husband retired as consul in 1966, shortly before a disastrous flood in Florence that destroyed many works of art, the couple moved into a restored farmhouse outside of Florence called "Il Palagetto." For 19 more years American musicians, art connoisseurs, and historians mingled with Italian aristocrats, orchestra conductors, and museum directors at her dinner parties in the hills above Florence.

Mrs. Cootes was active in flood relief efforts, in the American Church in Florence, and in the Amici della Musica. The Cooteses were on good terms with Harold Acton and with many notable Florentine families, including the Capponi, the Della Gherardesca, the Frescobaldi, the Antinori, the Ferragamo and the Fantacci. In 1986 they returned to the United States, to a home near Princeton University.

She is survived by a sister, Barbara Phillips Ford. Additional survivors include three nieces and three nephews.

A funeral service is planned at Trinity Episcopal Church, 33 Mercer Street, on Saturday, December 11, at 2 p.m.

Richard Haynes

Richard Haynes, 64, of Princeton, died November 26 at the University Medical Center at Princeton.

Born in Iberia, Mo., he grew up in Shreveport, La. After completing his graduate studies in Philadelphia, he settled in East Windsor in 1970 and moved to Princeton in 1992.

He received a B.S. degree from Centenary College of Louisiana and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.

From 1969 to 1996, he was a member of the research staff at the Engineering Research Center, Bell Laboratories in Hopewell. Described by colleagues as "a modern day Merlin," he specialized in electrochemistry and research in the application of plating technology to telecommunications. During his later career, he was involved in engineering applications to reduce electromagnetic interference from electronic equipment. A senior member of IEEE and the Electrochemical Society, he held numerous patents and awards in his field and served as a consultant to several large companies.

His contributions to his community included both serving and chairing the Planning Board of East Windsor. He was also a member of the Princeton and East Windsor Environmental commissions as well as the East Windsor Municipal Utilities Authority.

For a number of years he was an active member of the Princeton Unitarian Universalist Congregation.

An avid outdoorsman, he enjoyed hunting and fishing in his younger years and in later years was active in nature photography. His greatest joy, however, was his family and grandchildren, to whom he devoted himself during his retirement.

Diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes in 1969, he helped pioneer modern treatment methods when his physician asked him to be one of the first patients to use a home blood sugar monitor. For the last ten years of his life, he controlled his diabetes with an insulin pump.

He is survived by his wife, Valerie Westcott Haynes; a son, Ronald Matthew of New York City; a daughter, Lia of Woodbridge; a sister, Catherine Kennedy of Shreveport; a brother, Ron of Oak Grove, La.; and four grandchildren.

The funeral service will be Wednesday, December 1, at 11 a.m. at The Kimble Funeral Home, 1 Hamilton Avenue. Interment will follow in Princeton Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Association of America at www.debra.org or addressed to DebRA of America, Inc., 5 West 36 Street, New York, N.Y. 10018.

Marjorie L. Robertiello

Marjorie L. (Hopkins) Robertiello, 89, of Princeton, died November 24 at Kensington Manor in Toms River.

Born in Providence, R.I., she lived in the Princeton area for more than 35 years.

She retired as the secretary to Dr. George Samuelson of Columbia Carbon Research in Plainsboro.

The daughter of the late Grace Titus Hopkins, she is survived by her husband, Alfonso J. Robertiello; a daughter, Roberta Joyal Markham of Rockport, Mass.; and two grandchildren. The funeral services and burial in Princeton Cemetery were private.

Memorial contributions may be made to Kingston First Aid & Rescue Squad, Kingston 08528.

Arrangements were under the direction of The Kimble Funeral Home.

Mabel Yurcho

Mabel Yurcho, 95, of Hopewell, died November 28 at Merwick Rehab Hospital and Skilled Nursing Facility. A native Princetonian, she had lived in Princeton for 91 years before moving to Hope-well four years ago.

She was a long-time member of St. Paul's Church.

The wife of the late John Yurcho of Princeton, she is survived by her son, Robert J. Yurcho of Hopewell, and by her nieces and nephews Carmine and Joyce Cirullo of Princeton Junction, Doris and Bob Cowan of Hyannis, Mass., William and Susan Cirullo of Pennington, Charles Cirullo of Princeton, and Martha and Al D'Arcy of Trenton.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, December 1, at St. Paul's Church, 214 Nassau Street. Interment will follow in Princeton Cemetery. There are no calling hours.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Hopewell First Aid and Rescue Squad, Hopewell 08525

Arrangements are under the direction of The Kimble Funeral Home.