Charlotte L. Taylor, Dan Oberst, Cornelia van der Lee, Martin Brodsky, John Stiegman, Virginia A. Meissner, Carson C. Peck Jr.
Charlotte L. Taylor
Human rights activist
Charlotte Little Taylor of Princeton died Thursday at University Medical Center at Princeton. She was 87.
Born in Rochester, Minn., she was a Princeton resident more than 35 years.
She was one of the founders of the Erehwon School of Princeton in the 1970s and launched the national Bed and Breakfast League, based in Princeton, the first such association in the United States.
She was an active member of Trinity Church in Princeton and served on various boards, including Bancroft Neurohealth based in Haddonfield.
She was active in civil rights, women’s equality, environmental causes, holistic health, ethical investing, peacemaking and social justice, and supported public television and the arts. She advocated for those with mental handicaps, AIDS or facing the death penalty, describing herself as a "volunteer in healing ministries."
She was a graduate of the Baldwin School and received a bachelor’s degree in music from Smith College in 1940.
Wife of the late Thomas C. Taylor, mother of the late Keta T. Colby, grandmother of the late Cody Taylor, she is survived by daughters and son-in-law Tamsin Taylor of Portland, Ore., and Elizabeth and Bruce Bodien of Kempton, Pa.; sons and daughter-in-law Tim and Billie G. Taylor of Bainbridge Island, Wash., and Pete Taylor of Marlton; sister Elizabeth L. Helmholz of Lafayette, Calif.; grandchildren Adi Taylor, Charlotte Colby and Chris, Tessa, Rudd and Lake Taylor; and great-grandson Felix T. Taylor.
The funeral will be 10 a.m. Saturday at Trinity Church, 33 Mercer St., Princeton
Private interment will be at Trinity Memorial Garden.
Memorial contributions may be made to The Crisis Ministry, 123 East Hanover St., Trenton, NJ 08608 or Keta Taylor Colby Public Interest Law Program, Loan Repayment Assistance Program, University of San Francisco Law School, Kendrick Hall, Room 328, 2130 Fulton St., San Francisco, CA 94117-0180 or New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, 11 North Willow St., Trenton, NJ 08608.
Arrangements are by Kimble Funeral Home, Princeton.
Dan Oberst
IT specialist at university
LAWRENCE Dan Oberst died Thursday at the University Medical Center of Princeton after a year and a half battle with renal cell carcinoma. He was 58.
He was a longtime staff member in the Office of Information Technology at Princeton University.
Mr. Oberst joined the OIT staff in 1987, and most recently was director of enterprise infrastructure services, leading the development of the university’s core computing infrastructure, widely regarded as one of the finest in the nation.
Born in Rochester, N.Y., he was a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he played in the marching band. He went on to study linguistics with Noam Chomsky at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Before earning a master of philosophy degree from Teachers College of Columbia University, Mr. Oberst joined a combined Teacher Corps-Peace Corps program, spending a year teaching the children of migrant farm workers in Salinas, Calif., before serving four years in Malaysia. There, Mr. Oberst acquired the fourth of the five languages in which he was to become fluent, teaching science for two years in the rural Sultanate of Kelantan and then developing curriculum at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.
Following the Peace Corps, Mr. Oberst directed the computing center at Marymount College in Tarrytown, N.Y.
In 1981, he moved to Lawrence, where he worked for Educom and contributed to the development of Bitnet, the precursor to the Internet, and later the Internet. In Lawrence, he served on the Lawrence Historical Society.
Mr. Oberst worked at Princeton University for nearly 20 years, and was a leader in developing its core computing infrastructure.
Son of the late Bernice Mooney Oberst and Charles Oberst, brother of the late Paul Oberst, he is survived by his wife of 26 years, Martha Richmond of Lawrence; sons Caleb of Philadelphia and Jesse of Tokyo; daughter Keturah of Lee, Mass.; brothers and sisters-in-law Eugene and Margaret of Rochester, N.Y., Steven and Betty of Irondequoit, N.Y., Jerome and Betsy of Oswego, N.Y., Philip and Mary Kay of East Irondequoit, N.Y., and James and Amy of Rochester, N.Y.; 19 nieces and nephews; aunt Elizabeth Mooney of Rochester, N.Y.; sister-in-law and brother-in-law David and Jean Bowman of Flagstaff, Ariz.; and mother-in-law Sonya Richmond of Lawrence.
A Mass celebrating his life will be celebrated 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Edith Memorial Chapel on the Lawrenceville School campus.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Kidney Cancer Association, 1234 Sherman Ave., Suite 203, Evanston, IL 60202, www.curekidneycancer.org. Remembrances may be left at http://blogs.princeton.edu/fordan/.
The Office of Information Technology has organized a blood drive in Mr. Oberst’s honor from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday in Frist Campus Center on the university campus.
Cornelia van der Lee
Princeton Microfilm vice president
WEST WINDSOR Cornelia van der Lee died Wednesday at Capital Health System’s Mercer Campus, Trenton. She was 65.
Born in Indonesia, she resided in the Princeton area for the past 43 years.
Ms. van der Lee retired in 2003 after 35 years as an executive vice president of Princeton Microfilm, West Windsor.
Daughter of the late Frans Christaan and Helena C. Koster van der Lee, she is survived by brothers Frans van der Lee of North Carolina and Willem van der Lee of Hawaii; sisters Nicolette Porrenga of the Netherlands and Torie van der Lee of Lambertville; and several nieces and nephews.
The funeral will be private. There will be no calling hours.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Scleroderma Foundation, Attention: Donations, 300 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, www.scleroderma.org.
Arrangements are by Brenna Funeral Home, 340 Hamilton Ave., Trenton.
Martin Brodsky
Retired master plumber
PLAINSBORO Martin Brodsky died Friday at the University Medical Center at Princeton. He was 82.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., he moved to Plainsboro in 1993.
A master plumber, Mr. Brodsky was employed by Merka Plumbing in Brooklyn for more than 30 years and then worked in plumbing maintenance at the Brooklyn Developmental Center.
He was a Navy veteran of World War II.
Husband of the late Shirley Brodsky, who died in 1993, he is survived by sons and daughter-in-law Neil and Monaca Brodsky of Barnegat and Fred Brodsky of Plainsboro; and grandchildren Allison and Carri-Anne.
The funeral was Sunday at Timothy E. Ryan Home for Funerals, Toms River.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society.
John Stiegman
College football coach
LAWRENCE John R. Stiegman, former head football coach at Rutgers University, the University of Pennsylvania and Iowa Wesleyan College, died of cancer Oct. 31 at home. He was 83.
During a coaching career that extended from the 1940s into the 1970s, Mr. Stiegman served as head coach of three college football teams as well as an assistant football coach at Princeton University, the University of Pittsburgh and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
He also coached hockey and lightweight crew at Princeton during a 10-year stint there from 1946 to 1955.
As head coach at Rutgers from 1956 through 1959, his teams won 22 games and lost 15; his 1958 Rutgers team won the Middle Atlantic Conference and produced an 8-1 record, losing only to a non-collegiate opponent, the Quantico Marines, by a single point. As head coach at Penn from 1960 through 1964, his record was 12-33.
Mr. Stiegman was an assistant on the famous Princeton teams that won 24 straight games between 1949 and 1952 and were ranked first in the nation at one point. His famous players included the Princeton tailback Dick Kazmaier, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1951, and the Rutgers All-America back Bill Austin.
Mr. Stiegman is credited with two of the greatest upsets in Ivy League football history. In 1946, as a Princeton assistant, he designed the strategy that enabled Princeton to score a 17-14 victory over a nationally ranked Penn team that was favored by four touchdowns. In 1963, his strategy of constant punting and a harrying defense enabled his last-place Penn squad to score a 7-2 victory over a Harvard team that then held the nation’s longest unbeaten streak.
A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Mr. Stiegman was an all-around athlete at Riverside High School. At Williams College, he lettered in football, hockey and lacrosse. As a Williams tackle in 1942, he was named the team’s most valuable player and played on the only Williams team ever to defeat Princeton.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1944, he was commissioned an ensign in the Navy, commanding a landing craft in Europe during World War II. He subsequently attained the rank of commander in the Naval Reserve.
After Mr. Stiegman left Penn in 1964, he coached as an assistant at Pitt and Army. In the early 1970s, he became assistant to the president of Iowa Wesleyan College, working on a master plan for an athletic complex and program development. When the head football coach there resigned, Mr. Stiegman briefly became a head coach once again. He ended his career working on the special projects staff at Paul Smith’s College in upstate New York.
Mr. Stiegman’s first wife, Elizabeth Tindall, died in 1999. His second marriage ended in divorce. He is survived by daughters Elthea Stiegman of Bozeman, Mont., and Holly McAlpen of Hayward, Calif.; sisters Sally Jenkins of Iowa and Judy Keough of Florida; brother Daniel of California; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held 12:30 p.m. Friday at the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville.
Virginia A. Meissner
Longtime Plainsboro resident
HAMILTON Virginia A. Meissner of Hamilton died Sunday at the Hamilton Continuing Care Center. She was 67.
Born in Phillipi, W.Va., she was a resident of Plainsboro for many years and had lived in the holiday house on Edgemere Avenue.
Mrs. Meissner formerly worked for Walker Gordon Farms in Plainsboro. She retired from Datarama in West Windsor.
Wife of the late Curtis H. Meissner, she is survived by daughters and son-in-law Pamela Nazario of Hamilton and Patricia and Arnold Kish of Spotswood; son and daughter-in-law Jack and Rose Ann Sinclair of Hamilton Township; stepchildren and their spouses Robert and Stephanie Meissner of New Egypt, Curtis and Debby Meissner of Plainsboro, and Jane and Richard Cormack of East Windsor; grandchildren Jennifer, Alysa, Salvador and Tina Nazario, Ginger B. Sinclair and Jackie W. Sinclair Jr., and Justin and Jessica Kish; stepchildren Sophie, Robert and Joseph Meissner and Kim Cormack; and great-grandchildren Jovanni and Joe’l Nazario.
The funeral will be 10 a.m. Thursday at A.S. Cole Funeral Home, 22 North Main St., Cranbury.
Interment will follow in Brainerd Cemetery, Cranbury.
Calling hours are 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home.
Carson C. Peck Jr.
Daughter lives in Princeton
PENNINGTON Carson C. Peck Jr. died Thursday at St. Mary Medical Center, Langhorne, Pa.
Born in Dallas, he grew up in San Mateo, Calif., and was a longtime resident of San Francisco. He also maintained a home in Punta Gorda, Fla.
He was retired after a long career in the brokerage business in San Francisco.
He served in the Navy during World War II, achieving the rank of lieutenant junior grade. He was a member of the Class of 1946 of Princeton University.
He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Isabelle Mears Peck; sons and daughters-in-law Chris and Diane Peck of Palo Alto; Calif., and Arthur and Kirsten Peck of Orinda, Calif.; daughters and sons-in-law the Rev. Nina and Jim Reeder of Lawrence Township and Nila and Mark Eisenach of Princeton; grandchildren Jessica Hurt, Jim Reeder, Annin, Grace, Katie and William Peck, and Carson, Louise, Helen and Sara Eisenach; stepgrandchildren Desiree Pollock and Joseph Holdnak III; and stepgreat-grandchildren Emily Pollock, Ryan Pollock, Abigail Holdnak and Joseph Holdnak IV.
The funeral will be 10 a.m. today at Lawrence Road Presbyterian Church, 1039 Lawrence Road, Lawrence Township, with the Rev. Dr. David Davis of Nassau Presbyterian Church presiding.
Private entombment will be in Ewing Church Cemetery Mausoleum, Ewing.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Pastor’s Fund, Lawrence Road Presbyterian Church, 1039 Lawrence Road, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648.
Arrangements are by Poulson & Van Hise Funeral Directors, Lawrence.

