obits

Allen Vander Meulen, Jr., 89, died peacefully at The Commons in Lincoln on November 22. Born in Chicago on June 23, 1932, he was the eldest child of Allen (Sr.) and Alice (Connor) Vander Meulen of Chicago. 

The grandchild of Irish and Dutch immigrants, Allen grew up on the south side of Chicago. He graduated from Fenger High School in 1950. His youth was a happy time, despite the challenges his family faced while he and his siblings were born and grew up during the Great Depression and World War II. He graduated from Northwestern University with a B.S. in economics (1954) and from Yale Divinity School (1958). 

Allen was minister at Third Congregational Church in Waterbury, Conn., from 1958–1963, where he met the love of his life, Dorothy Overbaugh; they were married on August 29, 1959. Their children Allen III and David were born in Waterbury and daughter Ruth was born in Vermont.

Allen’s gifts as a teacher, mentor, and administrator were widely appreciated. He had a strong drive to advocate on behalf of those who had no voice, and to seek justice and opportunity for those who had none. Soon after moving to Vermont, he joined other area ministers to travel to Washington, D.C. and stand in solidarity with hundreds of thousands of others from all over the nation to hear Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Allen became minister at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro, Vt., in 1963. He left in 1968, serving as an interim minister throughout Massachusetts and Vermont while attending school, eventually graduating from Brown University with a Ph.D. in economics in 1974. In 1973 he became an associate professor of economics at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. He also directed the school’s extension program in Casper.

In 1978 Allen joined North Central College in Naperville, Ill., as a professor of economics. He oversaw the school’s new Weekend College and helped establish what is now their computer science department. He also helped establish the school’s MBA program. In later years he taught business ethics as well.

Allen and Dorothy returned to Brattleboro on his retirement in 1997. There he served as chair of Centre Church’s Endowment Committee and a trustee for the town library, among other organizations. He enjoyed family, travel, biking, long walks, and conversing about philosophy, ethics, or politics. Allen and Dorothy moved to Lincoln in late 2019.

Allen was predeceased by his parents and his sister Eva. He is survived by his wife Dorothy; son Allen III and wife Stephanie of Lincoln; son David and wife Julie of Aurora, Ill.; daughter Ruth and husband Tim of Rockford, Ill.; brother Ross and wife Kay of Galesburg, Ill.; brother-in-law Robert Overbaugh and wife Nancy of Westford, Mass.; and numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews. Allen’s grandchildren are Elizabeth Anne Vander Meulen, Aaron Taylor, Joshua Taylor, and Allen Vander Meulen IV.

There was a private memorial service at the Dee Funeral Home in Concord. A celebration of his life will be held at Centre Congregational Church in the spring of 2022. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his memory to Centre Congregational Church, Brown University, Yale Divinity School, or the Alzheimer’s Association.  

Arrangements are under the care of Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service. To share a remembrance or to offer a condolence in his online guestbook, click here.

(Editor’s note: The Lincoln Squirrel is now running complete obituaries in cases where they’re provided by the funeral home for a fee.)

There will be a live-streamed graveside service on Friday, Oct. 29 at 11 a.m. for Joan Platt (Saxe) Dolinsky of Hingham, formerly of Lincoln and Swampscott, who passed away peacefully after a brief illness on October 25. She was the daughter of the late Hyman and Sylvia (Allen) Saxe. She was raised in Brookline, and attended Brookline High School and Mount Ida College and received her bachelor’s degree from Bentley University.

Joan is survived by her loving husband Larry Dolinsky of Hingham and her children Jeri Smoller (Mark) of Needham, Donna Platt of Southborough and Eric Platt (Pao) of Portsmouth, N.H. Her pride and joy were her four grandchildren Billy Smoller (Rachel Books), Rachel Beth Smoller, Andrew and Jason Michalik, and three cherished great grandchildren (Gabe, Emma and Sophie Smoller). She also leaves her siblings Janet, Judy, and John Saxe, as well as many cousins, nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her first husband, Harvey Platt, and her brother Joel Saxe.

Joan had many interests. She was an avid sports fan, bridge player, and bicyclist, having ridden her bike with Larry around the world for the entire year 2000. There were other bike trips from coast to coast and the length of the Mississippi. She loved to travel with Larry to many different places around the world. Joan was an avid reader, theater fan and also enjoyed sailing. Family meant everything to her, and she reveled in all of her family gatherings.

After the burial, shiva will be held via Zoom by private invitation. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (P.O. Box 849168, Boston, MA 02284 or via www.dana-farber.org/gift). Arrangements handled by Brezniak Funeral Directors.

Service for Pamela Gallup

There will be a memorial service to celebrate the life of Pamela Gallup on Saturday, Nov. 13 at 11 a.m. in Bemis Hall. Gallup, a longtime member of the Housing Commission and Housing Trust, died in January. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, masks are required while in the building.

William Arthur “Bill” Nockles

Bill Nockles died in Sudbury at the age of 94. He and his widow Diane were both teachers at the Lincoln School. Full obituary.

Myrna Graf, 80

Graf was a former executive secretary, real estate agent, and Spanish interpreter in banking. She died on October 1. Read full obituary.

Anthony “Tony” Thomas, 61

Thomas, who passed away on September 30, worked as a jeweler and lapidary, musician, audio engineer, and wildcrafter. He is the son of George and Jane Thomas of Lincoln. Read full obituary.

Robin Frentz Isaacs, 68

Isaacs ran the Massachusetts chapter of the Frontier Nursing Society, which helped bring midwifery to Appalachia and was active with the Friends of the Sudanese. She died on September 6. Read full obituary.

A public memorial gathering to honor the life of Margaret “Peggy” Breed Marsh will take place on Saturday, Oct. 2 at 11 a.m. in the Lincoln Cemetery. There will be coffee, donuts, and Lincoln talk.

Marsh died in February at the age of 100. Her sons Alec and Alan provided this obituary tribute for the Lincoln Squirrel:

“Our mother Peggy was born in Boston and came of age in Cambridge, Mass. Her father, Stephen Alec Breed, was a mathematics instructor at MIT and her mother, Laura Post was from Boston. They had a large house on Brattle Street that became a boarding house for graduate student during the Depression.

“Peggy attended Brimmer May and Buckingham schools, then matriculated at Smith College like her mother. She graduated in June 1942 and immediately joined the Women’s Army Air Force, serving through the World War as a second Lieutenant. After her discharge she undertook doctoral studies in English at Radcliffe, earning a Ph.D. She met our father, Paul E. Marsh, as he was finishing his studies at Harvard and they were married in 1949. The Marshes moved to Lincoln in 1954 and lived there till near the end of their lives.

“Both Peggy and Paul taught school. Peggy was a professor and briefly Dean of Students at Wellesley College in the 1960s. She later worked at Polaroid. Both took a lively interest in town affairs, serving on innumerable committees: fence viewer, the School Committee, Planning Board, Water Commission, etc. Both were also involved in any number of projects that have made Lincoln what it is: Codman Community Farms, The Lincoln Review, and the town historic district, to name some. They even turned the red barn on Winter Street into a nursery school for a time. On foggy dawns on April 19th, Peggy would don a British uniform, saddle a horse, and ritually ‘capture’ Paul Revere at Minuteman National Historical Park.”

Ruth Brown Moskowitz died peacefully on September 5 at The Commons in Lincoln, where she spent the last five and a half years of her life.

She was born in Chicago to Leon and Sophie Brown, both immigrants from Romania. When she was eight, the family moved to Coney Island, N.Y., where she grew up and graduated from Lincoln High School. She then obtained further education at the Pratt Institute and Teacher’s College Columbia University, where she received a bachelor’s degree. Later she received a master’s degree from Rutgers University in food science.

In 1942 Ruth married Sidney Moskowitz, a successful electrical engineer and a City College of New York graduate. They remained partners for 64 years until he passed away in 2007. Ruth and Sydney lived for many years in Hawthorne, N.J., where they raised their children. Upon Ruth’s retirement, they moved to San Diego.

Ruth focused her professional career on nutrition and feeding children. She initially began as an assistant food editor for Good Housekeeping magazine, then wrote recipes for Lipton Tea Company and moved on to direct the school food service in Elizabeth, N.J. In San Diego she became a voluntary ombudsman for the elderly in nursing homes and hospitals. At the age of 93 she finally retired, having received many awards for her work.

In 2016 she moved to Lincoln to be close to her daughter, Lynn DeLisi. Throughout her life, she was always devoted to family and hungry children worldwide. She is survived by her three children (Lynn, Barry and Shelley); five grandchildren (Jackie, Daniel, Noah, Carly and Kevin, and a sixth, Alex who predeceased her while serving in the Israeli army); and five great-grandchildren (Samuel, Kensuke, Sadye, Aili and Kai).

Ruth was laid to rest next to Sydney in the AM Israel Mortuary in San Diego. May she rest in peace and her memory be a comfort to all who had the privilege of knowing her. In lieu of flowers, donations to a charity of your choice providing food for disadvantaged children would be what Ruth would have wanted.

Deborah Cole French died quietly at home on August 20 in Lincoln. She was born Charlotte Deborah Cole on August 15, 1930 to Horace and Charlotte Cole and grew up in Newton. Deb attended Briarcliffe College (Class of ‘50) and married John Brand French in 1951. They lived briefly in Newport, R.I. and Key West, Fla., then in Cambridge, Mass., and settled in Lincoln in 1956, where they resided for the rest of their lives.

Together Deb and Jack raised a family of four children in Lincoln and were active members of the community. Deb was a constant reader, an avid learner, and a concerned and engaged citizen. She served on the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Student Exchange Committee for many years, and on a variety of civic committees in Lincoln and at the First Parish Church. She was an avid horticulturalist and gardener and a dedicated gallery instructor at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where she became a knowledgeable art historian through courses at the MFA about the museum’s collections. Her knowledge of art, both historical and contemporary, enlivened several trips around the U.S. and to Europe and Asia with Jack.

Deb and Jack spent more than 50 summers on Vinalhaven, Maine, where they dove into the project of creating a summer home on the site of an old granite quarry. Deb loved “rearranging nature” in her rock garden and landscaping at the quarry. They enjoyed being part of the Vinalhaven community and sharing their special place with children and grandchildren. 

Deb’s warmth, elegance and thoughtfulness, and strong opinions, will be remembered fondly and vividly by her family: brother Herbert M. Cole, son John Jr. (Olga Zizich), daughters Lindsay (Peter O’Neill) and Hilary (Christopher Foster), daughter-in-law Julie Henderson, grandchildren Danya, Karina, Piper, Ian, Alec, Lyle, and Eli, step-grandchildren Jason, Daniel, Alice, and Claire, and her many nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by Jack, her husband of 67 years, son Stratton (Tony), and an infant grandson, Corbin.

A memorial service is planned for November 20, 2021 in Lincoln. The time will be confirmed soon and posted on the Dee Funeral Home website once finalized. In lieu of flowers, you are welcome to donate in her memory to First Parish in Lincoln, Doctors Without Borders, or Native American Rights Fund.

Arrangements are under the care of Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord. Condolences may be sent to P.O. Box 6303, Lincoln, MA 01773 or her online guestbook.

Antoinette “Toni” Cantlin, 100

Cantlin was a resident of Short Hills, N.J. before moving to The Commons in Lincoln several years ago. She died on July 26. Full obituary.

Joseph Santosuosso Jr., 55

Santusosso, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, died on August 14. Full obituary.

Robert “Buz” Brannen, 90

Brannen, who died on July 29, was co-founder of Jung/Brannen Associates, Inc., the largest architectural firm in Boston in the 1980s. Obituary and guest book.

Emma Tavolieri, 101

Tavolieri was the mother of Elaine Jarvis of Lincoln and co-founding member of the BelAirs, a senior singing group in Belmont. She died on July 15. Obituary and guest book.

Paula Whelan

The wife and 40-year co-worker of Bernard Maloney of Lincoln died on June 27. Obituary and guest book.