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Vol. LXII, No. 25
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
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Vol. LXII, No. 25
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
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Anne Clark Martindell, 93, of Princeton, died June 11 at University Medical Center at Princeton. A New Jersey politician and U.S. diplomat, she played an important role in strengthening U.S. relations with New Zealand.
She was the mother of Borough Councilman Roger Martindell of Princeton.
Ms. Martindell was a conventional mother and housewife until she began a career at age 50, which she chronicled in a memoir, Never Too Late, published just a month ago.
Landmarks in her late-blooming career included completion of a four-year degree program at Smith College at age 87, an event that was the topic of a segment on the NBC Today Show and Oprah, and a half-page article in The New York Times. Smith celebrated Ms. Martindell’s educational achievement by awarding her dual degrees, a bachelor of arts and honorary doctor of laws.
Ms. Martindell was born in the Plaza Hotel in New York City, the daughter of Marjory Blair Clark, a railroad heiress, and William J. Clark, a lawyer and later judge of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. In her memoir, she described her early life as sheltered, herself as shy, and her life as a New York debutante “conventional.” Although she entered Smith as a member of the Class of 1936, she reported that her father was shocked to learn after her freshman year that she planned a legal career and he insisted that she leave Smith to marry, which she did at age 19.
Nearly 30 years later, she launched her career as an elementary school teacher and fundraiser for charities and politicians. Appointed vice-chairperson of the New Jersey Democratic Party in the 1960s, she drew media attention when her all-male colleagues attempted to bar her attendance at a strategy meeting, ostensibly because her presence would inhibit them for using language that might offend a woman, to which she replied, “I don’t give a s*** what kind of language you use.”
In 1973, Ms. Martindell was elected to the New Jersey State Senate where she served until 1977, focusing on legislation concerning education and the environment.
She was among the first New Jersey politicians to endorse Jimmy Carter for President and, after her term in the State Senate, she moved to Washington where she served as director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance of the Agency for International Development during the first two years of the Carter administration. She was nominated by President Carter and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Western Samoa in 1979. She served three years in that post.
Ms. Martindell’s love of New Zealand lasted the rest of her life. In 1986, concerned about deteriorating U.S.-New Zealand relations, she founded the United States-New Zealand Council to promote understanding and friendship. At the time, relations between the two countries were strained by New Zealand’s decision to bar U.S. Navy vessels from its ports on grounds that they might carry nuclear weapons. The Council, active to this day, lists Ms. Martindell as chairman emeritus. She also discovered the man she described as the love of her life, prominent New Zealand painter Sir Toss Woollaston, and they enjoyed a trans-world romance until he died in 1998.
Ms. Martindell was married to the late George C. Scott, Jr., of Richmond, Va. The couple had three children, Marjory Luther of Ann Arbor, Mich.; George C. Scott III of Richmond; and David C. Scott of Princeton. Her fourth child, Roger Martindell, was born during her second marriage to the late Jackson Martindell, publisher of Who’s Who of America.
In addition to her children, she is survived by a brother, J. William Clark of Great Barrington, Mass.; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
A June 16 funeral at Trinity Church was followed by private burial. A memorial service is planned for September 13.
Memorial contributions may be made to the U.S.-New Zealand Council, 1801 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006; or to North Country School/Camp Treetops, P.O. Box 187, Lake Placid, N.Y. 12946; or to The Carter Center, 1 Copenhill, Atlanta, Ga. 30307; or to Smith College, Gift Accounting Unit, 33 Elm Street, Northampton, Mass. 01063.
Irving Klothen, 84, of Haverford, Pa., formerly of Princeton, died peacefully June 12 at The Quadrangle Continuing Care Community in Haverford after a long battle with prostate cancer. He had lived in Princeton from 1957 to 1998.
Born in Berlin, he was raised in a middle class, secular Jewish environment typical of the times. In the early 1930s, as the Nazis increased their grip on German society, Mr. Klothen’s parents removed him from a public school system that was increasingly hostile to Jews and enrolled him in Berlin’s Jewish school, founded by the Jewish Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.
As Germany’s Jewish population came under increasing oppression by the Nazi regime, friends and family began to seek to emigrate, and Mr. Klothen’s father reluctantly agreed to seek a visa to come to the United States. Thanks to the intervention of U.S. relatives, the family left for the U.S. in 1941, eight weeks before the Nazis began deporting Berlin’s remaining Jews to extermination camps. Most of Mr. Klothen’s German relatives perished in the Holocaust.
Once in the United States, Mr. Klothen entered night school in New York to finish his interrupted high school education, while working full time to support his parents. Upon graduation, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed in England in advance of the D-Day invasion of Europe. In England he met a fellow Jewish refugee from Berlin, Miriam Frank, whom he married in 1944.
Following the war, Mr. Klothen returned to New York and attended New York University under the G.I. Bill, majoring in chemical engineering. Upon graduation he obtained a job with Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River, N.J., and remained with the company (later American Cyanamid Co.) for his entire career. Focusing on the development of animal feed additives, he was instrumental in the development of many products for the company and was awarded several patents. He obtained his master’s degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University in 1969 while working full time for American Cyanamid.
Mr. Klothen brought a European’s love of classical music to his American identity, attending concerts and recitals with great regularity and becoming a self-described “chamber music groupie,” spending many summers at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. It was a weekend ritual in his home to listen to the opera and pause at 4 p.m. for “Kaffee und Kuchen.” He also developed an appreciation for college football, regularly taking his young son to Princeton University football games.
He loved to travel, invariably tying family vacations to his business trips for American Cyanamid to Europe, Latin America, and Asia. He developed a special fondness for the people, culture, and cuisine of Brazil, and numerous mementos of his trips there hung in his home until his death.
With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Mr. Klothen’s old Jewish school, which had been located in the former East Berlin, was returned to Berlin’s Jewish community and reopened as a Jewish school. An invitation to meet the teachers and students of the school then precipitated an intensive involvement with the school’s development that lasted until Mr. Klothen’s death. He visited the school annually, talking to students and faculty about its history and lobbying for a revival of the liberal tradition of Moses Mendelssohn. In 2007, he funded a program that enabled members of the school’s faculty to meet with their counterparts at several Jewish day schools in the U.S., and to join RAVSAK, an association of Jewish community day schools.
After much deliberation, Mr. Klothen decided in 2006 to reclaim the German citizenship that had been taken from him by the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. He did so, he said, “to recognize that Germany is once more a place, like the U.S., where one can be naturally a citizen and a Jew.” He remained fully committed to his adopted homeland, however, and a partisan Democrat who sent e-mails about the Clinton-Obama primary battle to friends around the world until a few weeks before his death.
He is survived by his wife, Miriam, of Haverford; a son, Kenneth Klothen of Swarthmore, Pa.; and two grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to RAVSAK, the Jewish Community Day School Network, for the benefit of the Juedische Oberschule Berlin, 120 West 97th Street, New York, N.Y. 10025.
George Manolakis, 77, a lifelong resident of Princeton, died June 12 at the University Medical Center at Princeton.
A graduate of Princeton High School, he attended Rider College and Rutgers University.
He was first employed at Princeton University Press before becoming the owner of The White Rose Restaurant in Trenton. He later became a professional photographer and owner of Athena Studios, named after his beloved wife. With his wife he later opened the restaurant Myconos in Princeton, which offered Greek-American cuisine. His last employment was as a realtor at Stockton Real Estate.
He was a lifelong member of the St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Hamilton, where he was also a board member, treasurer, and a member of the Ahepa Philoptohos Society.
The son of the late William and Lena Manolakis and brother of the late Tessie Costa, he is survived by his wife, Athena; a nephew, Dr. Leon Costa; and a niece, Lynn Antonov.
Visiting hours will be today, June 18 from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. at the William Murphy Funeral Home, 1863 Hamilton Avenue, Hamilton. The funeral service will be today at 11:30 a.m. at Saint George Greek Orthodox Church, 1200 Klockner Road, Hamilton 09619.
In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be sent to Saint George Greek Orthodox Church, 1200 Klockner Road, Hamilton 08619; or to The International Bible Association, Box 225646, Dallas, Texas 75265.