OBITUARIES, March 27, 2007

Laverne George, Frank J. Lesh, Harold Powers, Allen R. Trudel, Florence Hale

Laverne George


Writer and art critic
   
Laverne George, a longtime Princeton resident, died March 13 at Chandler Hall Nursing Facility, Newtown, Pa., after a long illness. She was 86.
   A writer, her work ranged from advertising to art criticism.
   A Princeton resident since 1969, she was a docent at the Princeton University Art Museum where she started the Saturday morning program for children, which combined gallery talks and hands-on demonstrations by artists.
   She also collected books on the history of art and her 800-volume collection was recently donated to the Princeton Friends School.
   "She was an original, a one of a kind, and brought hope and warmth and a sense of adventure, a kind of brightness or light, into the lives of the people who knew and loved her," said her husband Thomas George.
   Her primary interests were travel, writing, and art history.
   Born in Hollywood, Calif., Mrs. George said her first big adventure was playing basketball at Hollywood High School with such future movie stars as Lana Turner and Alexis Smith.
   While in her 20s, she left a job at CBS in Los Angeles and moved to New York City to write for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. In 1949, she left for Paris, where she became a writer for the European Cooperation Administration, which administered the Marshall Plan. There she met her future husband, the painter Thomas George, who was studying art in Paris under the GI Bill.
   The couple married in 1951 and after two years in France moved to Florence, Italy, where Mrs. George wrote on travel and art history. The couple traveled widely and then returned to the U.S. in 1955 to be with John George, Mr. George’s son from a previous marriage. Settling in Rockland County, N.Y., Mrs. George developed her career as an art critic while Mr. George continued to paint.
   In 1956 they moved to Kyoto, Japan for two years with Mrs. George exploring various aspects of Japanese life and culture and teaching English. In 1957, they returned to Rockland County. They then moved to Princeton in 1969.
   For 30 years starting in 1966, the family spent every summer in a small town on the Oslo Fjord in Norway. Mrs. George worked in Oslo as a docent at the Heine Onstad Art Museum, one of Scandinavia’s leading institutions devoted to modern art.
   She is survived by her husband, Thomas George; son Geoffrey; stepson John; and sister Patricia Poitras of Los Angeles.
   Mrs. George will be interred at Princeton Cemetery and friends will gather to celebrate her life later this spring.
   Memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, Greater Jersey Chapter, 400 Morris Ave., Suite 251, Denville, NJ 07834.
Frank J. Lesh


Computer consultant
   
Frank J. Lesh of Princeton died March 12 at St. Barnabas Hospital, Livingston. He was 79.
   Born in Buffalo, N.Y., he was a resident of the Princeton area for more than 35 years.
   He was a retired computer consultant and had been a pioneer in the early development of computers.
   He was a Navy veteran of the Korean conflict.
   He received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a master’s degree from Harvard Business School.
   Son of the late Charles and Carrie Adornatto Lesh, he is survived by his children, Lydia Lesh, William J. Lesh, Andrew J. Lesh, and Carrie Haley and sisters Bessie Testa and Pauline Gnozzo.
   Memorial services will be held at a later date in Buffalo, N.Y.
   Arrangements are by Kimble Funeral Home, Princeton.
Harold Powers


Music scholar at university
   
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Harold Powers, a Princeton University professor whose scholarly interests encompassed musicology, ethnomusicology and music theory, died March 15 of liver cancer. He was 78.
   Dr. Powers, the Scheide Professor of Music History Emeritus, and a former Princeton resident, served on the Princeton University faculty from 1973 to 2001.
   Born in New York City he earned his bachelor’s degree in piano from Syracuse University in 1950. He earned a master of fine arts degree in composition and musicology in 1952 from Princeton University. He then studied for two years in Madras, India, as a Fulbright Fellow before continuing for a doctorate in musicology from Princeton in 1959. His mentors were noted Princeton scholars Milton Babbitt, Edward Cone, Oliver Strunk and Arthur Mendel.
   Dr. Powers taught at Harvard University from 1958 to 1960 and at the University of Pennsylvania from 1961 to 1973 before returning to Princeton. He went back to India several times to study music there on a John D. Rockefeller III Fellowship, on a Fulbright Senior Fellowship and on a number of shorter trips.
   Professor Powers also was well known for his undergraduate courses, graduate seminars and scholarship on Italian opera. His work culminated in the book "Puccini’s Turandot: The End of the Great Tradition," co-written with William Ashbrook and published by Princeton University Press in 1991. His other interests included comparative musicology and the relationship of music to language as well as a career-long exploration of a phenomenon called "mode" in music theory.
   Professor Powers was named to the Scheide professorship in 1995, after Kenneth Levy, who had held the title, transferred to emeritus status. Professor Levy said of his colleague: "Thinking of him, the label ‘best and brightest’ comes readily to mind. (He was) a scholar of stupendous versatility and intellectual distinction."
   After transferring to emeritus status in 2001, Professor Powers resided in New York City.
   He is survived by his companion, Barbara Rosen of New York City; former wife Elizabeth Connor Powers of Princeton; daughter Cornelia Powers of San Francisco; son Stuart Powers of New York City; sister Judith D. Brown of Palo Alto, Calif.; half sister Frances Powers of Killington, Vt.; half brothers Gerald French of Johannesburg, South Africa and Perrine French of Palo Alto, Calif.; and grandchildren Charlotte Markle, Aldyn Markle and Alexander Powers.
   A campus memorial service may be planned for later this year.
   Memorial contributions may be made to a travel fund established in his honor last year by the American Musicological Society.
Allen R. Trudel


Former Princeton resident
   
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Allen Robert Trudel died March 14 from injuries after being struck by a car. He was 86.
   He was a resident of Princeton for about 10 years beginning in the late 1950s.
   He began his career as an engineer for Otis Elevator Co. in Brussels, Belgium, in 1948.
   He moved to Princeton in 1957, and was employed in management at the particle accelerator program at Princeton University. He later held management positions at Scott Paper Co. and RCA Corp. before returning to Otis Elevator and most recently to Essex Electronics Inc.
   Born in Philadelphia, he graduated from Swarthmore College and married Michele Marechal, a classmate, before serving as an officer in the Navy during World War II. The marriage ended in 1968 after 26 years.
   Son of the late Catherine and Edward Trudel, he is survived by his wife, Marilyn; sons Jacques and Glenn Trudel; stepsons Guy and Dean Blank; stepdaughters, Kathy Herrmann and Connie Hoffner; daughter-in-law Suzie Blank; son-in-law Rich Herrmann; and eight grandchildren.
Florence Hale


Owned travel business
   
MONROE — Florence Farmer Hale died March 22 after a short illness.
   She owned Hale Travel/Conference Inc. in the Harlingen section of Montgomery Township for 10 years.
   She was deaconess at Bunker Hill Lutheran Brethren Church.
   In her early years, she was an accomplished equestrian and earned a private pilot’s license. She traveled extensively throughout the world and especially enjoyed visiting New York City.
   She is survived by a daughter Jill J. James of East Stroudsburg, Pa.; sons and daughters-in-law Glen G. and Cynthia Hale of Erwinna, Pa., Reid R. and Nancy Hale of Juno Beach, Fla. and Todd T. Hale of Juno Beach, Fla.; sister Corinne P. Pardew of Towson, Md.; grandchildren Reid J. Hale Jr., Kelsey K. Hale and Danielle H. Nelson; and great-grandchildren Gavin Steven and Austin Michael of Hopewell Township.
   A memorial service will be held 11 a.m. April 7 at Bunker Hill Lutheran Brethren Church, Bunker Hill Road, Franklin.
   Arrangements are by M.J. Murphy Funeral Home, South Brunswick.