Ann “Rooney” Hochschild Poole, 93, died peacefully on June 5, 2018 in her home at Stonebridge, in Skillman, NJ.
She was born August 29, 1924 in New York City the eldest child of Walter Hochschild and Kathrin Samstag. She attended The Brearley School, New York, NY, was graduated cum laude from Vassar College in 1946, and earned a master’s degree in counseling from Rider University in 1983.
In 1947 she married Richard G. Poole Sr. of Lake Forest, IL, with whom she raised four children in Clinton, NY before moving abroad to France in 1964. They returned in 1966 to Princeton, NJ.
After receiving her master’s degree she worked at several agencies in the Princeton area, including the Counseling Center at Rider University. Together with her daughter she created and led workshops on mother-daughter relationships, which she conducted at the Princeton YMCA/YWCA. She served on the board of Family and Children’s Services of Central New Jersey, volunteered at the Lewis School and the Princeton Hospital, and was active in the Home Friends Program of the Princeton Senior Resource Center.
A lover of music and the performing arts, she acted in a number of amateur musical theater performances in upstate New York and performed with PJ&B Productions in Princeton, NJ. She was a lifelong patron of New York’s theaters and regularly attended McCarter Theater in Princeton until the time of her death.
She is preceded in death by her husband, Richard G. Poole Sr.; and her two sisters, Patricia Hochschild Labalme (George Labalme Jr.) and Lynn Hochschild Boillot (Claude E. Boillot). She is survived by her three sons and one daughter, Richard G. Poole Jr. (Kathryn Gately) of DeKalb, IL, Peter W. Poole (Kathleen Eickman) of Rochester, NH, Kathrin W. Poole (Howard Tomlinson) of Princeton, NJ, and Walter H. Poole (Suvarnala Yeluri) of Phnom Penh, Cambodia; eight grandchildren; and three great grandchildren.
Her cremated remains will be buried in Blue Mountain Lake, NY, in the Adirondack Park, where a private service will be held. A memorial service will be held in Princeton, NJ at a later date to be announced. In lieu of flowers, gifts in her memory may be made to The Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts (PO Box 205, Blue Mountain Lake, NY 12812; www.adirondackarts.org/product/8DDF932/donation); and the Indian Lake Theater (PO Box 517, Indian Lake, NY 12842; www.indianlaketheater.org/support-us/).
