Emily Van Ness Schurin, formerly of West Windsor and more recently of Storrs, Connecticut, died Tuesday, June 14 at the age of 68 after a long struggle with cancer.
She is survived by her husband Ron, sons Zachary and Matthew, daughter-in-law Leah Kamin, grandson Daniel, and brother Jim and his wife Anna, sister Deirdre and her husband Ron, brother Michael, sister Molly and her husband Jim, and many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents, James and Mary Sheean, of Middletown, New Jersey.
A graduate of NYU, Emily began her career as a journalist, working at the Hunterdon County Democrat, the Princeton Packet, and for several years at The Trenton Times, where her work was recognized with several awards. She also co-produced a highly recognized public television documentary on rural poverty in New Jersey called “Walk a Country Mile,” and her work appeared in The Nation, Ms., The New York Times and other national publications.
In 1976 she received a Sloan Foundation Fellowship to study economics journalism at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.
Later, after several years devoted primarily to caring for her two sons, Emily resumed her career, becoming in the early 1990s one of the early pioneers in the field of internet-based health communications.
Over the past 25 years she contributed her talents to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Women’s Health Resource Center, Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, and several internet startups. She also taught journalism at Rutgers University.
Emily was, above all, devoted to her family, including her mother and father, whom she helped care for in their later years; her brothers and sisters and their spouses and children; her husband, with whom she shared 36 years of life’s challenges and rewards; and the two sons who were the light of her life.
In recent years she was delighted to include her daughter-in-law Leah into her life and, in these last months, to welcome her grandson Daniel into the world. There will be an interment ceremony on Friday, June 24, at 12:00 noon at Princeton Cemetery, 29 Greenview Avenue, Princeton, NJ.
Contributions in Emily’s memory may be made to the Peace Action Education Fund, 40 Witherspoon Street, Princeton, NJ 08542; Hartford Hospital CB-2, c/o Hartford Hospital Fund Development, 80 Seymour Street, Hartford, CT 06102; or an organization of the sender’s choice.
