Owned local company
LAMBERTVILLE — Nancy “Ann” McLean Heckel died at home late last week after a brief illness. She was 59.
Born in Arlington, Va., she grew up in McLean, Va., received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arizona State University and moved to the Princeton area in 1982.
At that time she took the position of director of symposia for Excerpta Medica, which was then located in Lawrence.
In 1988, she formed her own medical publishing and meeting planning firm, Ann Heckel and Co., which provided medical meeting planning, symposia publishing, and beginning in the late 1990s, Internet Web-site design and data publishing services for over 15 years from offices on Wall Street in Montgomery Township.
During the 1980s, she began to take sculpture, drawing and painting courses at the Philadelphia College of Art. Moving to the New Hope area in the early 1990s, she continued studying and creating art works. She entered the Shad Fest art contest several times, winning twice with works depicting a whimsical fishing cat in a chef’s hat that she named the Chef du Shad.
In 2003, she closed her medical publishing firm to focus exclusively art. She developed a mixed-media style she called “picture sculpture,” at first concentrating on depicting endangered frogs, turtles, chameleons and other small animals and later branching out into depictions of larger animals, mammals, and pets. She was preparing for a major show of her work at the time of her death.
Daughter of the late Richard D. and Nancy P. Heckel, sister of the late Col. C. Gordon Heckel, she is survived by her sister, Dr. Jan Heckel of Orland Park, Ill.; twin brother Steve Heckel and his wife Kathy Metz of Montgomery; and several nieces and nephews, including Andy Heckel and Carrie Heckel of Montgomery, Fritz Heckel of St. Louis, Nancy M. Heckel of Rochester, N.Y.; and Cherye H. Paulson, of Midlothian, Va.
A remembrance party and art show celebrating her life is being planned.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Montgomery Township Education Foundation, P.O. Box 171, Skillman, NJ 08558, marked for The Ann Heckel Art Scholarship Fund. Proceeds will support graduating high school students who are continuing art studies in college.
