Sylvia B. Mann

Sylvia B. Mann passed away peacefully on January 15, 2019 at her home at 775 Mt. Lucas Road, Princeton, with her family present. Widow of esteemed American historian, Arthur Mann, and the mother of McCarter Theatre Center’s Artistic Director, Emily Mann, and New York literary agent, Carol Mann, Sylvia leaves two grandsons, Nicholas Bamman and David Helene; two sons-in-law, Gary Mailman and Howard Helene; a granddaughter-in-law, June Lee; and a great-grandson, Oliver Arthur Bamman.

Born in New York City on April 16, 1921 (a year after women got the right to vote, as she would often say), Sylvia was a lifelong feminist. She grew up in Paterson, N.J., attended New Jersey State Teachers’ College, and moved to Massachusetts after marrying Arthur Mann. While he attended Harvard graduate school, Sylvia taught elementary school in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and was active in The League of Women Voters. After the family moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1955 for Arthur Mann to teach at Smith College, Sylvia soon returned to school, receiving a Master’s degree in Education from Smith College, and became a remedial reading specialist, founding and directing a remedial reading center in the Northampton public schools. When Arthur Mann became Preston and Sterling Morton Professor of American History at the University of Chicago in 1966, Sylvia continued teaching remedial reading in Chicago, privately, to all ages — from young people to illiterate adults — and also taught at Illinois Institute of Technology. She was a consummate teacher. But her particular genius was for love. She adored her family and they her. When she turned 92, she moved to Princeton from Chicago to be nearer to her family, and her family had the great privilege of sharing her last years with her on a daily basis. A brilliant being, she was remarkably loving, wise, and profoundly intuitive. She knew the world, but her world in her later years was her family. Until the end, she maintained a fierce pride in the accomplishments and humanity of her children, grandchildren, and their spouses. We will love her and carry her with us, always.

All ceremonies will be private. In lieu of flowers, please send donations in Sylvia Mann’s name either to McCarter Theatre Center or the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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Virginia (Ginny) Petrone Goeke

Virginia (Ginny) Goeke, 84, of Kingston, passed away on January 26, 2019 at Compassionate Care Hospice at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton, NJ, after a brief illness, surrounded by her loving family.

Mrs. Goeke was born in Trenton and raised in Princeton before moving to Kingston 56 years ago. She was a graduate of Princeton High School, Class of ’52. Ginny retired from Century 21 Carnegie Realty to provide daycare for her grandchildren. She loved family gatherings and photography. She was a member of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Kingston Volunteer Fire Company.

She is the daughter of the late Victor W. and Alice Scheck Petrone, sister of the late Victor W. Petrone, Jr., and great-grandmother of the late Emilia Sophia McDonald. She is survived by her husband of 65 years, Robert L. Goeke, Sr.; her son Robert Goeke, Jr. of Kingston; son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Petra (Felkl) Goeke of Bridgeport, VT; daughter Debra Goeke of Hopewell; six grandchildren, Melissa, Jennifer, Pamela, Christa, Patrick and Jeffrey; four great-grandsons; and many nieces and nephews.

A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Monday, February 4, 2019 at St. Paul Church, 214 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ. Burial services will be private.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Kingston Ladies Auxiliary, PO Box 131, Kingston, NJ 08528.

Extend condolences and share memories at TheKimbleFuneralHome.com.

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Gavin Lewis

Gavin Edward Harry Lewis died peacefully at home, in the company of his loving wife, on January 20, 2019, in Princeton, New Jersey. He was a few days short of 76.

Born in Sutton, Surrey, England in 1943, Gavin Lewis was the son of the late Michal Hambourg, a celebrated concert pianist, and the late Edward Lewis, an architect. Gavin attended Westminster School in London and then Oxford University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in History. He then earned his Ph.D. in History from Princeton University. His doctoral studies took him to Vienna, Austria, and to Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, where he met his future wife Nadia Katyk. After their wedding in Bratislava in 1978, Nadia joined Gavin in New York City. Soon after, they settled in Princeton, NJ.

For over 30 years, Gavin taught Western Civilization to undergraduate students at John Jay College of Criminal Justice-CUNY. His research and publications include studies of central European history, Sumerian civilization, Athenian politics and religion, print and culture in the Renaissance, and the decipherment of Egyptian writing. With historian Thomas H. Greer, Gavin co-authored A Brief History of the Western World, a widely-used undergraduate textbook. Gavin is also the author of Church and Party in Political Catholicism: The Clergy and the Christian Social Party in Lower Austria, 1887-1907; Tomás Masaryk; Close-Ups of the Past: Western Civilization Case Studies; and WCIV. He also worked as a book editor, editing countless works of scholarship for major university presses.

Throughout his life, both professionally and personally, Gavin was a tremendous reader and writer. His commitment to the study of history and the humanities persisted well into his retirement, and he was at work on a book about the Roman Fifth Macedonic Legion at the time of his death.

Above all, Gavin Lewis cherished his family life. He was a devoted husband to his wife of 40 years. Together, they raised four children and, in recent years, took great joy in their five grandchildren. Gavin Lewis is survived by his wife, Nadia; his son Michael and his wife Irena; his daughter Anna and her husband Nicholas; his son Alexander and his wife Mandy; his daughter Dorothea and her husband Béla; as well as by five grandchildren, Nicholas, Sofia, Clara, Isadora, and Henry.

Gavin Lewis was buried at Princeton Cemetery on Tuesday, January 22, 2019. He will be greatly missed and his memory cherished.

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

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Thomas Osborne Stanley

Thomas Osborne Stanley, 91, died on January 14, 2019 at his home in Oxford, Maryland. Born in Orange, New Jersey, he was the younger son of Edmund Allport Stanley and Emily Hasslacher Stanley.

After attending public schools in South Orange, he went to The Lawrenceville School, graduating in 1945. He served in the US Navy from 1945 to 1946, then attended Yale University, earning a BE and ME in electrical engineering. In 1951 he and Nanette Lee Grodnick of Pelham, New York, were married.

Mr. Stanley worked at RCA Corporation’s David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, New Jersey, for his entire career, beginning in 1950. RCA sponsored a 1958/9 sabbatical at Cambridge University, England, with Lee and family, where he studied with computer pioneer Maurice Wilkes. He had a walk-on part at the debut of color television, happily contrived the world’s first transistorized pocket radio, and was midwife at the birth in the early 1960s of the MOS transistor — the core component of microprocessors. He predicted that “the geometry and simple fabrication of these devices will someday permit integration of thousands on a single wafer.” In research management, he held titles of Staff Vice-President, Systems Research and Staff Vice-President, Research Programs, including responsibilities for laboratories in Zurich and Tokyo. He was issued 14 patents in the fields of color television, transistor circuits, video disc systems, and flat-panel television displays.

Tom and Lee made their homes in Princeton and in Mantoloking, NJ, and in Manhattan, before moving to Oxford in 1992. He was engaged with civic organizations both in Oxford and further afield, including Washington College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Maryland ACLU, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was a founding contributor to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

In his wallet he carried a hand-written card stating: Listen to diverse voices / Seek new ideas / Embrace variety / Resist stereotypes / Respect diversity / Explore outward / Educate yourself.

Mr. Stanley was predeceased by a daughter, Bridget Alexandra; a son, Mark Raoul; his wife Lee; and brother Ted. He is survived by two sons, Tom and Alex; a daughter, Susan; two grandchildren, Daisy and Vishveshvara; and six nephews and nieces. A memorial celebration will be held in Oxford in May.

For online condolences, please visit www.fhnfuneralhome.com.

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Doris Ayres Brinster

Doris Ayres Brinster died peacefully at Stonebridge on Wednesday, January 23, 2019. She was 97 years old.

Doris was born in Springfield, NJ, and raised in Roselle, NJ. She excelled in school, allowing her to enter college at age 16. She attended the Women’s College Greensboro North Carolina, one of the few schools that would take young students. She earned a B.S. in Secretarial Administration.

Doris met her husband, the late John F. Brinster, in 1941 and they were married in Princeton on December 8, 1945. John graduated in 1943 from Princeton University and was working in the Palmer Laboratory. They built a home and raised their three children in Princeton. Doris was very active in town: she was a member of The Present Day Club for many years, a member of The DAR, and president of the Women’s College Club from 2002-2003. She worked for Audrey Short Realty and for the Law Board department at ETS.

She is survived by her daughters, Jaye White and Meg Michael; and her son, John E. Brinster. She is also survived by her nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The family will be holding a private burial service. Memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association at www.alz.org.