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Ingeborg Weinberg, 80
Was Native of Germany
Ingeborg Weinberg died from complications of open heart surgery in Michigan on Feb. 21, with both children by her side. She was 80 years old and a permanent resident of Edgartown, living at Kittsfield since 1986. She began vacationing with her family on the Vineyard in 1964 and became a homeowner in 1975.
She was born Oct. 23, 1921, in Hamburg, Germany, to the late James and Ida Geller. She immigrated from Germany in 1952 with her late husband, Kurt, to whom she was married
for over 40 years. They worked for US Vitamin in Yonkers, N.Y., as chemists. After raising her children, Inge went back to work as a chemist for Lehn and Fink in Montvale, N.J.
Her youth in wartime Germany shaped her beliefs, and she was outspoken as a pacifist and a strong supporter of education and equal opportunities for all. She was an avid reader and a world traveler who especially enjoyed meeting and talking to people from other countries and cultures. She will be remembered for her warm and outgoing personality, as well as her infectious smile and sense of humor. A positive thinker, she was eagerly optimistic, independent, ready to laugh and always ready to help those in need or who were less fortunate.
She enjoyed walking and swimming at State Beach. She loved gourmet cooking and her home was frequently busy with friends and family visiting throughout the year. She was fond of the Island's natural beauty and her plants. Inge participated in discussion groups and was a member of various book clubs on the Vineyard.
She was devoted to her family and especially enjoyed the annual visits of her four granddaughters for summers on the Vineyard. She is survived by her daughter, Jacqueline Ashe of Beverly Hills, Mich.; her son, David Weinberg of Bangkok, Thailand, and four granddaughters.
Funeral arrangements are private. The family requests that donations in honor of Inge be made to the American Heart Association, Memorial Processing Center, 20 Speen street, Framingham, MA 01701.
John Livingston Grandin
Was Gillette Executive
John Livingston Grandin, corporate secretary of The Gillette Company until his retirement in the early 1970s, died of pneumonia at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston on Feb. 25. Mr. Grandin, a longtime summer resident of West Chop, was 92. His career at Gillette spanned 27 years.
Mr. Grandin was born Jan. 22, 1910 in Boston, the son of John L. Grandin and Isabella McCurdy. He was graduated from Milton Academy in 1928, from Harvard University in 1932 and Harvard Business School in 1934.
Mr. Grandin devoted considerable effort over the years to raising funds for Harvard University, Junior Achievement of Eastern Massachusetts and many other nonprofit organizations. He served on the visiting committee for the Harvard Divinity School and as a member of the Harvard Resources Committee. He was chairman of the board of trustees of Northfield Mount Hermon School for seven of the 43 years he was a member of the board. He was a director of the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company for 27 years and also served as a member of the corporation of Northeastern University, the University Hospital and the Museum of Science. He was a former director of the Keystone Constitution Fund, member of The Country Club in Brookline and The Commercial Club of Boston.
He summered in West Chop since 1922 for every year except for a few World War II years when travel was difficult. He met his late wife in West Chop in 1938 and they married
in 1940. He was a founding member of Farm Neck Golf Club and in the 1960s was president of Mink Meadows Golf Club. He and Roy Goff worked together to preserve the land by selling off house lots to interested summer people. He also served as a trustee of the West Chop Club.
In World War II, he joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in February 1942 and served for four years with aviation squadrons in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific Theatre, retiring with the rank of lieutenant commander.
Mr. Grandin was predeceased by his wife, the former Susanne Preston Wilson, who died in 1999, in addition to his brother, Richard, and his sister, Isabella. He leaves three sons, John L. 3rd of Chestnut Hill, Edward W. of Jamaica Plain and Preston B. of Chestnut Hill, and five grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held in Trinity Church of Boston at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 9. Interment will be private.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Northfield Mount Hermon School of Northfield, MA 01360.
Alexander Bryan, 88
Was Sunfish Sailboat Designer
Alexander Bryan, 88, of Middlebury, Conn., community leader, sailboat designer and builder, avid golfer and Waterbury, Conn., business, died on Friday, Feb. 15, of natural causes at Waterbury Hospital. He was the husband of Aileen Shields Bryan.
Mr. Bryan was born May 31, 1913, in Waterbury, son of the late Wilbur P. and Agnes Smith Bryan, lifetime Waterbury residents. He was graduated from Hotchkiss School in 1931 and Yale University in 1935.
Mr. Bryan was transferred from the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserves at the beginning of World War II to PanAgra Airlines in South America, where he served as a DC-3 plot for the duration of the war. In 1946, he cofounded a small woodworking firm, Alcort Inc., with Cortland Heyniger. He would earn fame as a designer and builder of the acclaimed Sunfish and Sailfish sailboats, as well as his favorite, the Yankee class iceboats. In 1997, Fortune Magazine named the Sunfish sailboat as one of the world's 25 best-designed products.
Mr. Bryan was affiliated with the board of the Waterbury Hospital for 10 years, serving as its president from 1967 to 1968. He was a founding board member of the First Federal Savings Bank and served as a board member of the Waterbury Boys' Club, Waterbury Co. and the Homer D. Bronson Co. He was a member of the Waterbury Country Club, Waterbury Club, Edgartown Golf Club and Edgartown Yacht Club.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sons, Alexander Jr. and Timothy; his daughters, Cornelia Bryan Hurst and Josephine Bryan Potter; a sister, Frederica Burrall, and nine grandchildren.
Memorial services will be held Saturday, Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. at the Middlebury Congregational Church in Middlebury, Conn. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Waterbury Hospital, 64 Robbins street, Waterbury, CT 06721. The Munson-Lovetere Funeral Home in Woodbury, Conn., is in charge of arrangements.
Richard Horace Slade
Was U.S. Navy Veteran
Richard Horace Slade, 89, of West Yarmouth died on Feb. 14. He was the husband of Greta J. Norton Slade.
Mr. Slade was born in West Hanover and spent his childhood in Provincetown, graduating from Provincetown High School and Kents Hill School in Maine. He attended Colby College in Waterville, Me., before joining the United States Navy during World War II. He served with the Joint Assault Signal Corps in the Pacific Theatre.
Following the war, Mr. Slade worked as a surveyor for the state of Massachusetts. He later became inspector of dams for the state until his retirement in 1982.
Mr. and Mrs. Slade lived on Martha's Vineyard before moving to West Yarmouth in 1961.
In addition to his wife, survivors include two sons, Jay Slade of West Yarmouth, Scott Slade of Marysville, Wash.; a daughter, Sheila Jean of Kingsville, Tex., and two grandchildren, Amanda and Zachary Jean.
Services will be private.
Dr. Robert Ascher
Was Lifelong Summer Visitor
Robert C. Ascher, M.D., noted psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Manhattan and a lifelong summer visitor to the Vineyard, died peacefully at home on Feb. 5, surrounded by the family he adored. He was 77 years old.
He first came to Chilmark at three months of age in 1924. Long summers followed throughout his childhood; the family would arrive in late spring and stay through September. This quickly became his heart's home. He would later teach his children and grandchildren to see, smell, touch and experience all that is precious about the Vineyard. He taught them to be alert to what cannot be seen but is in the air and can heal the heart. In his entire life, the only summer he missed coming to his beloved Menemsha was when he enlisted in the Navy in World War II.
At the age of eight he built his first boat under the tutelage of Captain Butler, a retired whaling captain. When it was time to launch the boat off Squibnocket Beach, the captain informed the young boy that the rest was up to him. "Captain Butler couldn't swim," Mr. Ascher explained.
From that moment on, "Bobby" Ascher took to sea and was never to leave again, except when the call of familial and professional responsibilities brought him ashore. As a boy sailing alone, he would seek shelter and a warm meal from the lighthouse keepers in Tarpaulin Cove and the caretakers of the farmhouse on Nashawena.
In the 1930s he and some friends founded the Menemsha Yacht Club, out of which grew the Menemsha Pond races which have continued in various forms to this day.
As an adult, he restored two catboats, fishing boats rigged with one large sail that were indigenous to these waters. His first was built in 1890, and the second, the boat most familiar to Vineyard residents, Sea Hound, was built in 1911. Every summer he would cruise in the 30-foot, open cockpit boat with his wife, three, then four children, a cat and dog. Other boats, more practical and roomier, were to follow. Always there was a boat. But Sea Hound binds the family's memories of life with Captain Bob.
It was a familiar sight from Menemsha Beach to see Sea Hound's large, gaff-rigged sail cutting through a blazing sunset, making its way leisurely back to port as evening fell. When the weather kept others at their moorings, Mr. Ascher could find his way home through pea-soup fog by smell alone. He knew the Vineyard's sweet perfume.
He loved to row and to putter around in boats. He loved standing on the dock, sharing tales with other old salts. He loved to watch the tides change and the winds shift. World travel interested him little. For him, this Island and the waters surrounding it were all the world he required.
As befitting a life well lived, a life devoted to caring for others, he died in peace, surrounded by love. He died like a man who loved the sea. At 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 5, his ship's clock rang seven bells, and he simply dropped his mooring and sailed away.
Once when asked what he taught his patients, he responded, "That life is a love story. I try to teach them to live it that way." Mr. Ascher's life was a love story lived in great part on this Island.
He is survived by his first wife, Carol Hulsizer, a longtime summer resident of Chilmark; his wife of 35 years, Barbara Lazear Ascher; his children, Elizabeth and Steven of Cambridge, Ellen of San Diego, Calif., Rebecca of Manhattan, and four grandchildren.
A memorial service was held Friday, Feb. 22, at 6 p.m. at All Souls Church, 1157 Lexington avenue, New York city.
Alice F. Thomas, 99
Was Martha's Vineyard Native
Alice F. Thomas, 99, formerly Alice Forrester Eldridge of Edgartown, died Feb. 19 of natural causes in San Luis Obispo, Calif., her home for many years. Alice, who was born and raised in Edgartown, traced her roots, mainly through maternal lines, to several of the first settlers on both the Vineyard and Nantucket. Some of the better known names are Homes, Norton, Pease, Vincent, Daggett, Smith and Cleaveland, as well as Gov. Mayhew and Peter Folger.
Alice was blessed to the end with a clear mind and a long, accurate memory. Many a Californian has heard her charming stories of life on the Vineyard as a girl. The Eldridge house on South Water street, where she grew up, had been an early school house, moved to that location by her father, Henry Eldridge. Legend has it that it was the schoolhouse of Peter Folger, grandfather of Benjamin Franklin, who taught on the Vineyard before he left in the 1600s, as one of the founding fathers of Nantucket. For many years, until the 1950s, a row of tacks remained along the edge of the floor in the dining room, left from early school days when children were required to "toe the mark."
Mrs. Thomas is survived by her daughter, Alice Eldridge Slavich and her husband Paul; her son, Joseph Henry Donovan and his wife Lenore, both children who were born in Edgartown; four grandchildren, Nansi Wilson, Alison Christianson, Carol Sanchez and John Donovan; and three great-grandchildren, Michael Grammer, Marilyn Carter and Alicia Carter.
A memorial service was held at the San Luis Obispo Church of Latter Day Saints on Feb. 23, where she has been a member for 25 years. She will be interred in the Los Osos Valley cemetery in California, alongside her husband George E. Thomas, her brother, Wilhelm James Eldridge, also of the Vineyard, and his wife, Pat.
Ruth Gibson Morris
Was Island Summer Resident
Ruth Gibson Morris, 94, of Hilton Head, S.C., died at her home on Sunday, Feb. 17.
A summer resident of West Chop since 1925, Mrs. Morris represented the second of five generations to vacation on the Vineyard. Born in 1907 in Boston, the daughter of Florence Warner Gibson and Kirkland H. Gibson, she was graduated from The Windsor School and Vassar College.
Before settling in Sea Pines, Hilton Head, in 1972 with her husband, the late Edward Watts Morris, they lived in Bethlehem, Pa., for 38 years.
Mrs. Morris was involved in the leadership of St. Luke's Hospital Ladies' Aid and the Cathedral Church of the Nativity Women's Auxiliary in Bethlehem. She was an excellent golfer and horticulturist, winning awards at the Philadelphia Flower Show.
She was a member of the Weeders Garden Club in Philadelphia. On Hilton Head, she was a member of the Bear Creek Golf Club, Sea Pines Country Club and St. Luke's Episcopal Church. She was a charter member of Farm Neck Golf Club on the Vineyard.
Mrs. Morris is survived by a daughter and son in law, Ruth Morris and P. McEvoy Cromwell of Baltimore; a daughter in law, Angel Hart Morris of Rye, N.Y.; five grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; a sister, Eleanor Hollingsworth of Dedham, and a brother, George Warner Gibson of Hallowell, Me.
She was preceded in death by her sons, Edward Watts Morris Jr. and Robert Lewis Morris, and her brother, Kirkland H. Gibson Jr., who died last year.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Luke's Episcopal Church.
Memorials may be made to St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 50 Pope avenue, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928.
Alvin Bigelow, 78
Was Decorated War Veteran
Alvin Marshall Bigelow of Middleborough, 78, died on Tuesday, March 5, at his residence. He was the companion of the late Florence Rubinski and was the former husband of Jeannette L. (Wood) Bigelow of Vineyard Haven.
Born in Middleborough on Sept. 19, 1923, he was a son of the late Frederick and Ethel (Clark) Bigelow. He was a lifelong resident of Middleborough and was graduated from Middleborough High School in 1942.
A decorated veteran of the United States Army, Mr. Bigelow served from 1942 to 1946 and was the recipient of Croix de Guerre Forragere by General Charles DeGaulle and received two purple hearts, the Distinguished Unit Badge and the Presidential Unit Citation.
Mr. Bigelow always aspired to become a farmer and last worked for Harcos Farms on Bay Road in Taunton for more than 20 years prior to his retirement.
He was a member of the American Disabled Veterans and was a frequent visitor at the Middleborough Council on Aging.
Mr. Bigelow had kept a daily journal since 1947 that recorded the day's stock market activity and other items of interest, such as current charges for milk, eggs and other household items.
He and his family were the recent subjects of an article published in the Brockton Enterprise that detailed Mr. Bigelow's illness, the assistance of hospice and his daughter's decision to take a leave of absence from her job to assist her father, an option only recently allowed under federal law.
In addition to his former spouse, he leaves a daughter, Judith Ann Bigelow-Costa, with whom he resided; two sons, R. Bradford Bigelow of Groton and Garth A. Bigelow of Buzzards Bay; three brothers, Edgar Bigelow of Natick and Ernest and Hugh Bigelow, both of Middleborough; four grandchildren; four great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews. He was the father of the late John Bigelow and Jay Bigelow; the grandfather of the late Lance David Costa and was the brother of the late Sylvia Stets, Enid Butler, Richard Bigelow, Winifred Bigelow, William Bigelow and Frederick Bigelow.
Relatives and friends are cordially invited to attend a memorial gathering on April 14 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Middleborough Council on Aging, 558 Plymouth street, Middleborough.
Private interment will be on Martha's Vineyard.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Hospice of Greater Taunton, 244 North Main street, Raynham, MA 02767 or to the Middleborough Council on Aging, 558 Plymouth street, Middleborough, MA 02346.
Arrangements are under the direction of the Dyer-Lake Funeral Home, 161 Commonwealth avenue, Village of Attleboro Falls, North Attleboro.
Andrew Bruder, 79
Was Veteran of World War
Andrew Joseph Bruder, 79, died peacefully surrounded by his family at his daughter's home in Tisbury on Saturday, Feb. 16. He was a resident of Guttenberg, N.J., and a frequent visitor to the Vineyard for the past 25 years.
He was born Jan. 5, 1923, in Jersey City, N.J., one of 11 children. During World War II, he served with the First Marine Provisional Brigade on Guadalcanal, where the Sixth Marine Division was formed. His division joined the Tenth Army to invade Okinawa. His awards during his service included the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation with one bronze star, the China Service Medal and the American Campaign Medal. After the war, he was graduated from St. Peter's College, Jersey City, in 1948.
During his long career, he worked for American Airlines, Prudential Insurance and at CETA in Hoboken, N.J., before becoming the assistant director of career planning and placement in the cooperative education department at Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University). He retired in 2000. In addition to his work, he was an athlete, becoming a distance runner in his sixties and competing in many races, including the Chilmark Road Race. He was an avid tennis player and loved the ocean beaches.
He was predeceased by his parents, Dr. Andrew J. Bruder and Mary Townsend Bruder; his brothers, Winfield Bruder and the Rev. Eugene Bruder; his sisters, Christine Boyd, Katherine Fitzgerald and Mary Bohn, and his beloved son, A.J. Bruder.
He is survived by his four daughters and three sons in law, M.J. Bruder Munafo and Paul Munafo of Tisbury, Elizabeth Bruder Frydman and Kenneth I. Frydman of New York city, Susannah Bruder of San Francisco and Isabelle Bruder Smith and Thomas P. Smith of Colchester, Conn.; his former wife, Florence Smith Bruder of Fair Haven, N.J.; two brothers, Col. (Ret.) Joseph A. Bruder and John P. Bruder; his sisters, Helen Welter, Camilla Fenton and Marjorie Jocham; a grandson, Benjamin Andrew Frydman; a granddaughter, Jenik Munafo, and her husband, Hocine Khelalfa, and 50 nieces and nephews.
A funeral mass was held Feb. 21 at Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church in Rumson, N.J., with interment at Maryrest cemetery in Mahwah, N.J. Contributions in his memory can be made to Hospice of Martha's Vineyard, the Vineyard Playhouse or a charity of one's choice.
Betty Hurwich Zoss Was Photographer and Writer
Betty Hurwich Zoss, a longtime resident of Chilmark and West Tisbury, died Feb. 2 at the Royal Megansett Nursing and Retirement Home in North Falmouth. She was an accomplished photographer and writer whose photographs appeared in Island papers.
Mrs. Zoss was born in South Bend, Ind., and was graduated from the University of Chicago in 1938. She is survived by her children, Roger M. Zoss of Ferndale, Calif., Joel R. Zoss of Conway and Hope R. Zoss of Philadelphia, Pa., and by three grandchildren.
Memorial arrangements are pending. Donations may be sent to the Dora Hershenow Music Fund, Temple Beth-El, 305 W. Madison street, South Bend, IN 46601.
