Remembering one of the good guys

Former Fire Company member passes away

By: Lacey Korevec
   Wally Schanck, a former member of the Cranbury Fire Company, is remembered by company President Charlie Smith as a hardworking, honest, good guy.
   "He always did the little things that nobody thought about," he said. "He took the recycling out. He took the garbage out. The kinds of things you don’t really realize are getting done until they don’t get done anymore."
   A lifelong Cranbury resident, Mr. Schanck, 82, died Tuesday at the Elms of Cranbury. He served as a police officer and police chief, a Cranbury Fire Company member for over 50 years, was a founding member of the Cranbury First Aid Squad and was a coach for the Cranbury Little League and Babe Ruth League. He was always a member of the United Methodist Church of Cranbury and a Navy Vveteran of World War II.
   Jack Ziegler, another lifelong township resident, remembers working with him at the Fire Company.
   "We just went to the fires and worked together," he said. "He was just a nice person. And his wife was a nice person. We will miss him."
   Mr. Schanck retired from his longtime position as manager of the Lock Shop of Princeton University, where he worked for many years. He also helped with the development of Delaney Field on Old Trenton Road.
   His parents, Harrison Lewis and Lillian Perrine Ellis Schanck, are deceased. He is survived by his wife, Ethel Detrick Schanck; a daughter, Linda Watkins; a sister, Alta Robinson of Iowa; his grandchildren, Michael and his wife, Gina Kervan, Kimberly and her husband, David Casey, and Jeremy Watkins; and two great-granddaughters, Alexis Leigh Kervan and Lillyan Woods Casey.
   "He would do anything for his family," Mr. Smith said. "He was really a family man. He was very dedicated to his family and proud of his daughter and his grandchildren, and great-grandchildren also."
   Mr. Smith said that one of his fondest memories of Mr. Schanck is of his friend playing Santa Clause for the Fire Company year after year.
   "People just liked him because he was a very, very nice person," Mr. Ziegler said.
   Funeral services will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at the A.S. Cole Son & Co. Funeral Home, 22 N. Main St. The Rev. John Foster will be officiating. Interment will follow in East Windsor Cemetery, East Windsor.
   Relative and friends are invited to call today (Friday) from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 9 p.m. at the funeral home.
   Contributions may be made in Mr. Schank’s memory to the Cranbury Fire Company, 2 S. Main St. Street, Cranbury, N.J. 08512, the Cranbury First Aid Squad, 68 Maplewood Ave., Cranbury, N.J. 08512, or to the United Methodist Church of Cranbury, 21 N. Main St., Cranbury, N.J. 08512.