Richard “Dick” Christian
Richard “Dick” Christian passed away peacefully on February 14, surrounded by his family. He was 95 years old.
Dick was a Princeton resident from 1981 to 2004, when he moved to Stonebridge at Montgomery.
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he grew up in Berkeley, California, where he and Mary Lou Neidenbach were married in April 1950. In September 1950, he joined the Navy, serving until March 1952.
On his return, he graduated from San Francisco State College and began to work for station KQED, the first public broadcasting television station in California. He had his own live jazz program hosting some of the great musicians of that era and produced and directed educational and public affairs programs.
In 1961, he and his family moved to Montclair, New Jersey, when he was offered a position in New York City with television station WNET, helping to launch the first metropolitan public broadcasting station.
While directing live television productions at the RCA Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, he was recruited by Visual Information Systems, early video pioneers credited with filming the Liston/Clay champion fight and the original Woodstock concert.
In 1980, Dick joined the sales and marketing department of Excertpa Medica, a full service global medical communications agency headquartered in Amsterdam, with a Princeton office, from which he retired in 1994.
His travels with the company and with his family took him to Japan, Australia, and Singapore, London, Paris, and Amsterdam, as well as Alaska, Mexico, Italy, and Greece. As a sailor and Bay Area native, his favorite city was always Venice.
Dick was active in the Unitarian Church in Montclair and Princeton. In Princeton, he was involved with the men’s group and played in the bell choir. He was also an enthusiastic advocate for The Princeton Festival, twice playing non-singing roles in their operas. At Stonebridge, he belonged to several social groups and committees, and created and hosted many popular activities with such zest and attention to detail that they became lasting traditions. As Commodore of the Stonebridge Yacht Club (a position he once held with the Lake Carnegie Sailing Club), he was responsible for its annual Regatta (“anything that floats”) on the Great Pond, a fall favorite of residents, their families, and friends.
Sailing, following his beloved Yankees’ games, even going occasionally to their spring training in Florida, playing poker and gin rummy were a few of his many pleasures. But music, especially jazz, was his true love. After playing the violin as a boy, he turned to the piano, taking lessons and concentrating on jazz.
Dick was predeceased by his wife, Mary Lou. He is survived by his son, Murray and daughter-in-law, Tricia, his sons, Andrew and Matthew, five grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
He leaves a huge hole in the hearts of his family and countless number of friends. His unfailing optimism, warmth, and incomparable sense of humor touched everyone around him and brought new life to any party or group. As one of his friends so aptly said, “Everybody loved that guy.”
A celebration of Dick’s life will be held at Stonebridge on Saturday, April 23, at 4 p.m.
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Elizabeth Cooper
Early on the morning of March 29, Betty Cooper died peacefully.
She was born Elizabeth Lyles Edwards on April 4, 1925 and welcomed into a big multigenerational house in Tarboro, North Carolina. It’s there she undoubtedly learned to always welcome everyone and anyone into her home and life.
She was always driven academically, graduating from Tarboro High School as the Valedictorian of her class, followed by two years at St Mary’s Junior College where she was active, in what seems like all the appropriate clubs, as well as being elected Student Body President. She then went on to earn her BA in Mathematics from Chapel Hill in 1945 in one of the first graduating classes that included women.
She married at a young age to a theologian and minister. It was during this time she was exposed to the bigger world, with trips to Europe as well as the experience of living at several top universities along the East Coast. They also had a son we called Mac.
She later landed in Philadelphia where, while she was working for Towers Perrin, she met her second husband and started another chapter. Together they had two children, Grant and Lucy. They became pioneers of the, then newly-built, planned community of Reston, VA, and then moved to Princeton, NJ, in 1972.
She was giving, more than most, hosting any friend as long as needed, always sharing her table and a good home cooked meal. She could often be found working in the garden but gave a good bit of her time to volunteering for, in particular, Meals on Wheels, accounting for a Trenton Co-Op, and, due to her love of books, at several libraries.
She would never have called herself social, but her giving nature and good southern charm made her sometimes irresistible. She was “sharp as a briar” as one of her relatives called her and was so until the day she died, just days before her 97th birthday. Her innate wisdom will be missed by all who knew her.
She is predeceased by her two husbands, Robert M. McNair and G. Ashley Cooper, and son Robert M. McNair Jr.
She leaves behind her two remaining children, her stepdaughter Carol and her husband, two amazing daughters-in-law, and seven grandchildren. She will be greatly missed.
Extend condolences and share remembrances at TheKimbleFuneralHome.com.
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Gordon Oscar Danser
Gordon Oscar Danser, 77, of Lawrenceville, NJ passed away Friday, March 25 of injuries sustained in a tragic car accident. He passed away peacefully under the care of Trustbridge Hospice at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida with his loving daughters by his side.
Gordon was born on November 11, 1944, in Trenton, NJ to Oscar and Evelyn Danser. He grew up working on the family’s potato farm, attended Hightstown High School, and graduated in 1962. He was no stranger to hard work. He delivered milk for Conover’s Dairy, his grandmother’s farm, and served with the United States Coast Guard while he attended Rider College where he graduated in 1968 with a degree in accounting. Immediately upon graduating, he joined Parsons, Foy and Murphy as an accountant. In 1986 he founded Danser, Balaam and Frank in Princeton, which specialized in fiduciary tax and accounting. As a highly regarded CPA, Gordon also served as a fiduciary on many trusts and estates. He highly valued his clients and was honored with the trust they placed in him. He also served as Treasurer at different times for the Princeton Area Community Foundation and Drumthwacket.
Gordon was known as a kind and generous man. He offered sage advice, made friends easily, was quick to laugh, and was always well dressed. He loved to go deep sea-fishing and entered many tournaments coming away with some sizable catches and even bigger fish stories! He played many rounds of golf with family and friends and cherished playing mini golf with his grandchildren. Gordon spent many fun-filled summers in Long Beach Island, sailing the Catboat and especially loved taking friends and family out on his Boston Whaler. He found St. Maarten in the 1980s, fell in love with the island and vacationed there every year. Of course, he ended up with good friends down there, too.
He is predeceased by his father Oscar Young Danser, Mother Evelyn Conover Danser and sister Audrey Stahl. He is survived by his daughters Elise DeLucia (Phyllis DeLucia) and Andrea Danser (Brian Anger), grandsons, Trevor Pelcz, Tyler Pelcz, Jack Danser-Anger, Bennett Danser-Anger, step-grandsons, Zach Allen, Dante DeLucia, granddogs (Lucy, Max and Cooper), sister Connie Danser, brother Bill Danser (Linda Danser), several nieces and nephews, former wife and high school sweetheart Christine Theoharis Danser and friend and former Son-in-Law Doug Pelcz.
A memorial in Gordon’s honor will take place at the Nassau Club in Princeton on May 5 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. All those who loved Gordon are welcome. In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests contributions to the Princeton Area Community Foundation.
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DanielJonathan Milstein
DanielJonathan Milstein,33,passed awayFebruary 23, 2022.Daniel, aresidentof Somerville, Massachusetts,servedasPresident of Intreeg, Inc., a brain interface endeavor developing devices operating on the brain waves of paralyzed people, until the time of his death.He previously worked at BrainGate which is affiliated with Brown and Stanford Universities.Danielloved to sing, to learn, and to gather his friends and family, virtually or in person, and to make puns and write humorous songs.
Danielwas bornon June 20, 1988, in White Plains, NY, to Carol and Andrew Milstein who have resided in Princeton for more than 30 years.Danielgraduated Valedictorian from the Hun School of Princeton. After earninghis A.B. in Computer Science with honors from Brown University, he went on to receive his Masters in Computer Science also from BrownUniversity, where he treasured the friendships he made, including those made atAlpha Delta Phi.
Danielis survived by his parents, his sisterAmanda Koppelman-Milstein (Charles),his nephews, William and Joshua, and many loving friends. Instead of flowers, please donate to a cause supporting renewable energy in his memory.
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Frans Martin Djorup
Frans Martin Djorup, 91, a resident of The Commons in Lincoln, MA, and former longtime resident of Princeton, N.J., passed away peacefully at home on November 25, 2021.
Born in Philadelphia on November 8, 1930, he was the son of the late Frans and Anne (Baldwin) Djorup. Frans graduated from Abington Senior High School in 1948, and matriculated at Cornell University. He left Cornell for the Navy in 1951 where he served as a pilot. In 1955 he returned to Cornell to complete his undergraduate degree in engineering and physics, graduating with honors in 1958, and completing his PhD in 1963. While in school, he worked as a systems engineer for General Electric, and as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois.
After receiving his PhD, he and his family moved to Princeton, N.J., where he joined the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) as a mathematician, focusing on cryptography. He retired from IDA in 1998.
Frans was an avid puzzle solver and game player. He enjoyed blasting through the New York Times crossword puzzle (always with either a No. 1 pencil and his Pink Pearl eraser, or later in life using only a ballpoint pen and only the “Down” clues), and solving mathematical and logic puzzles of all sorts. He also enjoyed watching old movies, of which he had an encyclopedic knowledge. And he loved sharing those passions with his children and grandchildren.
He was a devoted husband, father and grandfather. He leaves behind his wife of 67 years, Marcia J. Djorup; their children, Mary Louise Krakauer (Wayland, MA), Christopher Djorup (Lansdale, PA), and Caroline Gerhardt (Baltimore, MD); his grandchildren, Caryn Krakauer (Wayland, MA), Kevin Krakauer (Sunnyvale, CA), and Domenic Sciancalepore (Lansdale, PA); and his sister Barbara Keen (Spokane, WA). His sister Marjorie Mack predeceased him. He also leaves behind his great-grandchildren, Sophie Lee Krakauer and Henry Lee Krakauer, who were born the day after he died.
Services will be private.
Contributions in his memory may be made to The McGovern Institute at MIT, which focuses on disorders of the brain, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
For his online guestbook, please visit www.DeeFuneralHome.com.
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Martha Willis Bergey Wiser
Martha Willis Bergey Wiser, known as Patty to her family and Pat to everyone else, passed away peacefully on March 22, 2022. She was 96, just shy 97.
Pat was born in Lewistown, Pa., and grew up there surrounded by an extended family and a town full of friends. Throughout her life, she spoke of her years there as idyllic. Due to wartime upheaval, she spent her senior year in Manhasset, N.Y., and graduated from high school there. She attended Pennsylvania State University for two years before withdrawing in 1946 to marry Forwood C. Wiser Jr., then a naval lieutenant in flight school at Corpus Christi, Texas.
During a number of naval postings on the Pacific coast and brief periods in Cambridge, Ma., and Chicago, Pat taught third grade at the Palo Alto Military Academy and was a bookseller at the Harvard Coop. After living briefly in Pittsburgh, the family settled in Bucks County, Pa., in 1955 where they lived for a dozen years before moving to Wellesley, Ma. In 1969, they moved to Princeton where Pat lived until her death.
Pat was a natural dancer, natural listener, and a natural flirt. She sketched like a breeze and drove like a bandit. She loved corn on the cob, Arpege, Persian Melon lipstick, pink roses, espadrilles and, above all else, milk chocolate. She had a lifelong aversion to exercise, healthy eating, flying, and sports. She was known never to break a sweat and never to miss a trick. She was a daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandmother above all others.
Pat was a member of the Garden Club of Princeton, Greenfingers Garden Club, the Nassau Club, the Monday Ladies, the Reading Group, and Pretty Brook Tennis Club.
Predeceased by her husband, Forwood Cloud (Bud) Wiser Jr., and her brother, Karl H. Bergey Jr., Pat is survived by her daughter Ann Wiser Fries, her son-in-law Glen Fries and their children Willis and Elizabeth (Michael Landell), her son Forwood Cloud Wiser III, his wife, Katharine L. Adams and their children Forwood IV and Harriet. Her great-grandson Alexander McCord Landell was born in September 2021.
Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to HomeFront or TASK.
Written by: Town Topics Newspaper
