Town Topics

Wilson J. Coan

Wilson J. "Rags" Coan, 92, of Dubuque, Iowa, formerly of Princeton, died on December 15, 2003 at the Stonehill Care Center in Dubuque, Iowa. He moved from Princeton to Dubuque in 1999.

Born in Princeton, he was a graduate of Princeton High School, where he was captain of the football team and played on the All-State team. He also was a high jumper on the track team. In his senior year at PHS, his family decided that he should go to college, so he prepped at Hun School. While at Hun he was an All-State forward on the 1931 basketball team, which won the state championship and the Eastern State Prep School Invitation Tournament. He was also the stroke on the Hun varsity crew.

While at Rutgers University, he started as tackle for the football team, center for the basketball team and stroke for the heavyweight crew. In 1936, his senior year, he was listed in American Football Annual as one of the outstanding tackles in the United States. He graduated from Rutgers in 1937 with a B.S. in business administration and a minor in sociology.

An accomplished athlete, he finished fourth in the National Junior Single Sculling Title race in 1945.

A retired Lieutenant Colonel from the New Jersey Air National Guard, he entered the Army in May 1942 and was subsequently sent to Officers Candidate School. He was then transferred to the Army Air Corps (U.S. Air Force), where he served in the European Command with the Strategical Tactical Air Force as a Squadron Air Inspector. In 1951, he served in the Korean War as a member of the 315th Combat Cargo Group. He was recalled to active duty in 1961 for the Berlin Crisis. He was stationed in Chaumont, France, as the base communications and cryptography officer.

He worked for the Mercer County Welfare Board as an investigator and then in 1950 transferred to the Department of Institutions and Agencies, where he retired as the assistant chief of the Bureau of Special Operations. Among the programs he coordinated was Emergency Welfare Services, which included but was not limited to the Cuban Refugee Program. He also served as a civil defense coordinator for the State of New Jersey to the U.S. Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, Region I.

For many years he was an active volunteer in the Princeton community. He was a past member of the Princeton Zoning Board, former Commissioner of the Princeton Little League, member of Princeton Troop 56 of the Boy Scouts of America Executive Committee, Vice Commander and Service Officer of the American Legion, Knights of Columbus trustee, and chairman of the St. Paul CYO. He also did volunteer work for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic.

His wife, Marie, died in 1985. He was also predeceased by his parents, William and Winifred, and four siblings, William, Walter, Mary, and Theresa. He is survived by two daughters, Mary R. Coan of Dubuque and Elizabeth C. Coan of Cape May, and four grandchildren.

A burial service will be held this summer at St. Paul Cemetery.

Memorial gifts may be made to The Mercer ARC, 600 New York Avenue, Trenton 08650; or to Alzheimer's Association of Central New Jersey, 12 Roszel Road, Princeton 08540.

Arrangements are by the Egelhof, Siegert and Casper Westview Funeral Home in Dubuque.

Viola Germani

Viola Germani, 79, of Yardley, Pa., died July 11 at the University Medical Center at Princeton. Born in Princeton, she remained a Princeton resident until moving to Yardley in 1996.

She retired in 1987 from The Family Services Agency of Princeton after 40 years of service.

Daughter of the late Domenico and Angeline Petrone Germani and sister of the late Margaret Butler and Albert Germani, she is survived by two brothers, Rocco Vendetti of Princeton and Dominic Germani Jr. of Yardley; and two sisters, Jay Bernath of Los Angeles, Calif., and Rose Johns of Philadelphia.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on July 16 at St. Paul's Church. Burial was in Princeton Cemetery.

Arrangements were by the Mather-Hodge Funeral Home.

Frederick H. Hautau

Frederick Herbert Hautau, 73, of Newtown, Pa., formerly of Princeton, died June 15 at Doylestown Hospital in Doylestown, Pa. The cause was heart failure following an extended bout with diabetes.

Born in Englewood and raised in Closter, he attended Union College. He then served for two years in the Air Force as a corporal, where he oversaw radio broadcast operations. His enthusiasm for radio and television communications launched his decades-long career in advertising.

An award-winning copywriter and creative director, he worked at N.W. Ayer in Philadelphia, Young & Rubicam in New York City, and QLM in Montgomery. He continued his advertising career with the establishment of his own firm, Adworks, in the early 1970s, and later with Canton, Hautau and Elliot.

Among his many career highlights was the Time Magazine campaign in which the "i" in the magazine's logo was replaced with an entity befitting that week's issue.

He is survived by his wife, Cynthia Proulx; his former wife, Janet Hautau of Princeton; a daughter, Michelle Klein; a brother, Ralph of Tappan, N.Y.; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service was held on June 19 at Mr. Hautau's home in Newtown.

Memorial contributions may be made to the American Diabetes Association, 1701 North Beauregard Street, Alexandria, Va. 22311.

Pamela L. Larson

Pamela L. Larson, 48, of Ewing, died July 14 at the University Medical Center at Princeton. She was a corporate manager of travel for I.T. Travel of Princeton.

Born in Somerville, she was a graduate of Montgomery High School. She was a member of Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church.

She is survived by her mother and stepfather, Judith and Edward Ruffin of North Carolina; her father and stepmother, Ronald and Pat Larson of Florida; two brothers, Scott Larson of Florida and Glenn Larson of Pennsylvania; and a sister, Victoria Larson of Pennsylvania.

A memorial service was held on July 17 at Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church, with the Rev. Murial Burrows officiating.

Interment will be at the convenience of the family.

Arrangements were by the Hughes Funeral Home, Trenton.

Jacqueline Linder

Jacqueline Linder, 82, of Boynton Beach, Fla., died July 2. She had previously lived in Princeton for many years, where she taught piano privately.

Born in Montreal, Canada, she began her piano studies at the age of four. She played competitively in her youth, winning numerous honors and prizes including the Prix d'Europe in 1944. After studying with Gaby and Robert Casadesus in New York City, she performed in many concerts accompanying orchestras such as the Montreal Symphony. She was also a featured artist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

She married her husband, physicist Ernest Linder, in 1945. After raising their children in Princeton, the couple moved to Florida, where Mrs. Linder continued to perform in quartets and recitals.

Predeceased by her husband in 1997, she is survived by a daughter, Jacqueline Linder; a son, Robert; three brothers, William Wells, Guy Lavoy, and Lloyd Lavoy; and two grandchildren.

The funeral was July 6 at Scobee-Ireland-Potter Funeral Home in Delray Beach, Fla. Burial was at the Boynton Beach Mausoleum.

Memorial donations may be made to the Bethesda Music Fund at the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, P.O. Box 1057, Palm Beach, Fla. 33480-1057.

Thomas A. Mitchell Jr.

Thomas Anderson Mitchell Jr., 84, of Purcellville, Va., formerly of Princeton, died June 25 at home.

Born in 1919 in Trenton, he graduated from Trenton High School in 1936 and from Rutgers University in 1940.

During World War II, he served as a lieutenant with the 1st Division in the U.S. Army, fighting in Northern Africa and Europe. He was captured by the Germans in Sicily at a time when the Germans, after many setbacks, were demonstrating fierce resistance. He was taken to a prison camp in Poland. There, he played piano in the prisoners' band, led campaigns to disrupt enemy operations, and founded the Rutgers Alumni Club of his OLAG. After 18 months in captivity, he escaped with a fellow P.O.W, hazarding both German troops and a Russian soldier who, mistaking them for Germans, interrogated them at gunpoint. The two eventually made their way to Russia and safety.

Upon his return to the United States, Mr. Mitchell earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and moved to Princeton, where he pursued a successful career in marketing and advertising. He led the marketing efforts of such companies as St. Regis Paper, Sunbeam, Philips-Norelco, and Interwoven, where he had a cast of actor Cyd Charisse's legs made for a promotion and persuaded the Duke of Argyle to become a royal poster-boy for socks. He later moved into real estate with Rossmoor Leisure World before starting his own real estate business, Sunview Corporation.

He was a lifelong pianist who loved jazz and fine cigars. He gave financial or advisory support to local organizations such as the YMCA, Trenton Symphony, and the Episcopal Church. He had vacationed in the Fortunes Rocks area since 1963.

Predeceased in 1980 by his wife of 26 years, Merrie Knowles Mitchell, he is survived by his five children, Catherine Mitchell of Eliot, Me., Deborah Faroe of Purcellville, Va., Thomas Ill of Brunswick, Me., Daniel of San Francisco, Calif., and Martha Mitchell of Fort Lee; and by eight grandchildren.

His remains will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery at 3 p.m. on July 27. A memorial service will be held at All Saints' Episcopal Church in Princeton at 4 p.m. on July 29.

Arrangements are by the Hall Funeral Home, Purcellville, Va.

Carl R. Nutzhorn

Carl Robbins Nutzhorn, 76, of Princeton, died July 12 at the Pavilions at Forrestal in Plainsboro following a brief illness.

Born in Rockville Centre, N.Y., he graduated cum laude in 1951 from Princeton University with a bachelor of arts degree. He was also a graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton, and received his law degree from Columbia University in 1955.

He served with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves at the end of World War II.

He was associated with several law firms in New York before opening his private law practice in Aspen, Colo. in 1972. After returning to Princeton in 1981, he authored a number of publications on constitutional law issues.

He maintained a wide range of intellectual interests in things scientific and political. He sold his property on Lytle Street at a bargain price, making it Princeton's first Habitat For Humanity project.

He was a member of the American Arbitration Association and Phi Delta Phi.

Funeral arrangements were private and under the direction of Kimble Funeral Home.

David L. Spanel

David L. Spanel, 75, of Princeton, was found dead in his home on June 8.

He was the son of the late Abram (A.N.) Spanel and Lois Dill Spanel. His father was the founder and CEO of Playtex (International Latex Corporation).

Born in Rochester, N.Y., Mr. Spanel spent his teenaged years in Princeton and New York City, living at the Drumthwacket estate with his parents or at The Horace Mann School in New York.

He attended Princeton University before receiving his bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He then moved to North Carolina, where he received his medical degree from Duke University in 1958.

He returned to Princeton in 1969, where he enjoyed the outdoors, participated as a runner in 9K runs, and hiked along the Appalachian Trail. He was also a collector of paintings of Maine.

He is survived by his daughter, Amy Spanel of Pennsylvania, and two grandchildren.

William Stackpole

William Stackpole, 78, of Lawrenceville, died July 11 at the University Medical Center at Princeton.

Educated at Groton School, Harvard University, and Columbia Law School, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. During his career, he was a partner in the law firm of Parker Duryea in Manhattan. He also served as assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, during which time he argued cases before the United States Supreme Court. Later in his career, he joined the law firm of Smith, Cook, and Lambert in Princeton.

In 1989, he earned a master's degree in psychology from Rider University, after which he worked as a clinical counselor at Right Associates in Princeton.

He served on the board of trustees of McCarter Theatre and as a volunteer at Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic.

A talented story teller, he was a regular attraction at the Inn Cabaret at the Nassau Inn during the 1970s.

He is survived by his wife, Willa; a son, William Jr. of New York; two daughters, Amy Brigham of Bronxville, N.Y., and Abigail McCall of Lawrenceville; two stepdaughters, Leslie Gregg of Charlottesville, Va., and Cameron Gregg of Santa Fe, N.M.; and seven grandchildren.

The funeral service will be private.