Theodore A. Peck Jr.

Theodore A. Peck Jr., 93, (Ted) of West Windsor died May 5. A memorial service will be held Saturday, June 23 at 4 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton.

Ted was an artist, writer, activist, and a programmer from the early days of computers.

He was born in 1924 in Charlotte, North Carolina. He grew up in Charlotte and in Alexandria, Virginia. He received a degree in mathematics from the University of Virginia in 1944, and was a member of the Raven Society and Phi Beta Kappa. After working with the U.S. Navy in Washington as a civilian, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in Okinawa in 1946 and 1947, and later also at Fort Campbell, Ky., Aberdeen, Md., and in Toledo, Ohio.

From 1949 through 1953 he attended the Art Students League of New York. In 1953 he began work as a “computer” of geodesic calculations at the Army Map Service in Washington D.C. He met his future wife Mary Sill there where she was part of the calculators pool.

In 1956 he began his career as a computer systems analyst with a position as field technical representative for IBM, with assignments in the Pentagon and the Navy Annex. Subsequently he accepted positions with Honeywell, RCA, Applied Data Research, and Mainstem. From 1975 through 1995 he was employed by Sedgwick Publishing Services of Princeton.

Ted was active in the Unitarian Church of Princeton, where he served as chairman of the Social Concerns Committee from 1970 through 1972 and as secretary of the Board of Trustees from 1973 through 1975.

He was appointed to the West Windsor planning board in 1966 and won election to the West Windsor Township Committee in 1972.

He was a founding member of Thresholds of Central New Jersey, a group which taught decision making techniques to prison inmates. He was also active with the Conservation Coalition of Princeton which pioneered the recycling movement, and with the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and the anti-nuclear SEA alliance.

He lost his wife of 37 years, Mary Sill Peck, to cancer in 1990.

In 1998 he married Elizabeth Murray, now Elizabeth Peck, his wife of 20 years.

Ted shared with Elizabeth a passion for painting and the arts. Each January they jointly organized an art and poetry show at the Unitarian Church and for many years Mr. Peck would organize and lead a tour of galleries, often in SoHo, New York City.

In recent years Ted participated in the Unitarian play reading group, a ROMEO breakfast club (Retired Old Men Eating Out), and delighted in attending the creative writing program at the West Windsor Senior Center through April of this year. Along with his wife Elizabeth, he served on the West Windsor Democratic Committee and as a poll worker.

He is survived by his wife, four sons, and seven grandchildren. His sons are Theodore A Peck III (Trey), Frederick Sill Peck (Fred), Arthur Merriman Peck (Art), and Christopher Mount Peck (Chris). His grandchildren are Hannah Peck, Sam Peck, Godwin Peck, Matthew Peck, Nathen Peck, Alexandra Peck, and Forrest Peck.

Ted had made it known that he would like any memorial contributions to be made to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton.

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Thomas L. Gray, Jr.

Thomas L. Gray, Jr., age 73 years, died Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at his home in Hopewell Township. 

Born January 16, 1945 in the Vailsburg Section of Newark, N.J., Tom was the son of the late Thomas L. and Nancy (Carucci) Gray, Sr. He attended high school at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, N.J. and later graduated from Seton Hall University in 1966 with a BS Degree in English and in 1973 with an MBA in Finance. 

Tom served in the United States Army Reserves during the Vietnam War as a Medic in the #322 General Hospital in Newark. 

Tom will be best remembered with his storied career in banking. In 1966, he joined the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in New York as a National Bank Examiner. At the age of 27, Tom became the President and CEO of Peoples National Bank of North Jersey in Denville, N.J., a position he held for more than ten years. In 1983, he was hired as the President and CEO of Lafayette Bank & Trust Company in Bridgeport, Conn., where he successfully turned around that once financially troubled institution. 

As the end of his tenure at Lafayette Bank approached, Tom began the process (with other local N.J. executives) to form a new bank in 1987, Carnegie Bank NA, headquartered in Princeton. As President and CEO, Carnegie Bank was one of the fastest growing banks in the U.S. and eventually was sold in 1998. Upon the sale of Carnegie Bank in 1998, Tom helped to form Grand Bank NA in Hamilton, N.J., where he served as Chairman of the Board, as well as President and Chief Executive Officer, positions he currently held. 

Tom was a member of the Board of Directors for other banks including, Admiralty Bank (Palm Beach, Fla.), First Bancap (Allentown, Pa.), Sunrise Bank (Cocoa Beach, Fla.), and Paradise Bank (Boca Raton, Fla.). He was also a member of the Board of Directors of VIIAD, Inc. (Newtown, Pa.).

Tom also served his professional community as a member of the Community Bank Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the American Bankers Association, New Jersey Bankers Association, South Jersey Bankers Association, Community Bankers Association, Bank Marketing Association, Confrèrie de la Chaine des Rôtisseurs, the Florida Brotherhood of the Knights of Columbus of the Vine, as well as the N.J. State and Regional Chambers of Commerce and the World Presidents’ Organization.

In 1997, Tom was a finalist for the N.J. Entrepreneur of Year, a Board member of the American Heart Association, the Greater Trenton Community Mental Health Center, Junior Achievement, the NJ EDA Entrepreneurial Training Institute, the Princeton Scholarship Fund, Rotary International, St. Clare’s Hospital Development Board, St. Vincent Hospital, Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, and the Young Presidents’ Association.

As a friend and colleague, Tom was unique. His passions included automobile restorations (especially those from the late ’50s and ’60s), playing a good game of golf, sailing the seas, or snow skiing with his many friends. He completed the New York City Marathon in 1985, something he was proud of accomplishing. However, his joys were truly spending time with his son, Mark, and the many treasured moments with his partner of more than 25 years, Karen Cinkay. Together, Tom and Karen travelled the world, loved a good dinner party with friends, or taking in a Broadway show.

In addition to his parents, Tom was predeceased by his sister, Kathy Wade. He is survived by his son, Mark Everton Gray, his partner, Karen Cinkay, as well as several cousins, nieces, nephews, and many friends.

A Celebration of Life to honor Tom will be at noon, Sunday, June 3, 2018 at the Trenton Country Club (TCC), 201 Sullivan Way, West Trenton, NJ 08628. Friends may gather beginning at 11 a.m. until the time of service at TCC. Please join with Mark and Karen immediately after the service for food and fellowship at TCC.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Tom’s name may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105 or to the American Cancer Society, 7 Ridgedale Avenue, Suite 103, Cedar Knolls, NJ 07927.

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Holcombe-Fisher Funeral Home, 147 Main Street, Flemington, NJ. 

For further information or to leave on online condolence, please visit www.holcombefisher.com.

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Richard G. Williams

Richard G. Williams, “Dick”, 75, of Princeton Junction died Friday, May 11, 2018. Born in Westerly, R.I., he has been a resident of Princeton Junction for over 45 years. Dick was a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a decorated major in the U.S. Army, serving in the 173rd Airborne Brigade during the Vietnam War. He retired in 2010 as Associate Dean of Princeton University with over 30 years of service. Dick was also a member of St. David the King Church, West Windsor.

Son of the late Palmer and Agnes Williams, father of the late Dennis Williams (wife Lisa), he is survived by his wife of 20 years Victoria J. Ridge; two daughters Karen Williams Newman (husband Jim); Elizabeth Williams Munns (husband Jeff); step daughter Laura Ridge; two brothers Robert Williams, Thomas Williams; and five grandchildren: Morgan, Dylan, Caroline, Michael, and Tommy.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Thursday, May 17, 2018, St. David the King Church, 1 New Village Road, West Windsor. Burial will be private.

Friends may call on Wednesday, May 16, 2018 from 6:30- 8:30 p.m. at St. David the King Church.

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to The Nature Conservancy Attn: Treasury, 4245 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington, VA, 22203; Nursing for All, 110 Reade Street #5 NY, NY 10013 or St. Joseph’s Indian School, PO Box 326, Chamberlain, SD 57325.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.

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Margery Cornell Brearley Ward

Margery Cornell Brearley Ward died May 7, 2018. Born in Princeton, in 1920, she attended public school there until she enrolled in George School in Pennsylvania. Her childhood summers were spent in New Hampshire and Montana. She earned a Masters degree at Mount Holyoke College after graduating from Swarthmore College in 1941. After a summer course at the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, she met and married Herman M. Ward. Margery then taught for one year in Bound Brook, N.J. public schools. She and her husband moved into their historic 18th century house in Belle Mead, N.J. in 1946 and continued to care for and restore it through their 65 years of living there together. They raised two girls and two boys before Margery again became a teacher, first at Stuart School and then at Princeton High School, where she taught biology from 1970-73. She also spent two summers as a nature counselor at Camp Becket, a YMCA camp in the Berkshires.

Margery, a devoted environmentalist, was active in local community affairs, attending meetings of the Montgomery Township committee and planning board during the period that 3M hoped to open up a quarry near their home and also when Johnson and Johnson (of Skillman) was operating a polluting manufacturing facility, which was finally forced to shut down.

Prior to becoming a member of the Princeton Society of Friends (Quakers), she taught in two other local church Sunday schools attended by her children. She also taught at the Children’s School of Science in Woods Hole, Mass. where she and her family owned a summer home. Throughout her life, she was an avid gardener and naturalist.

Margery was an officer for many years of the Van Harlingen Historical Society and active in their annual May in Montgomery fair. She, and her husband who died in 2006, frequently opened their doors to Scout troops, historians, and her husband’s colleagues, students, and foreign guests from Trenton State College (now The College of NJ), where he was an English professor for 30 years. She especially enjoyed accompanying him during three different years when he taught abroad in Greece, Germany, and Iceland. In her final years, Margery was a regular attendee at the Montgomery Senior Center where her always sunny presence will be much missed.

She is survived by her four children: David B. Ward and wife Alison of Falmouth, Mass.; Michael Whelan Ward of Belle Mead, N.J.; Gretchen Ward Warren of Saint Petersburg, Fla.; and Bonnie Ward Simon of New York City. Also surviving are five grandchildren: Basil and Sebastian Simon; Ray and Nicole Ward; and Jonathan Ward, his wife Sarah and her great grandchildren, Brearley and Lissie. 

A celebration of her life will be held later this year in Woods Hole, Mass. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Oxfam or the Van Harlingen Historical Society.

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A Commemoration

Midge Quandt

A commemoration of the life of Midge Quandt will be held on Sunday, May 27 at 2 p.m. in the large auditorium at Stonebridge at Montgomery, 100 Hollinshead Spring Road, Skillman, NJ 08558. The commemoration will include tributes and readings by family and friends. A reception will follow immediately afterwards. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alliance for Global Justice at https://afgj.org/.

Midge died peacefully at the University Medical Center of Princeton on March 14 at the age of 85. She was the author of From the Small Town to the Great Community (Rutgers University Press) and of Unbinding the Ties: The Popular Organizations and the FSLN in Nicaragua (Nicaragua Network Education Fund) and editor (with Margot Badran) of Sex, History and Culture (Trends in History).