Barbara Schoof was known to her friends as a woman of faith and a prayer warrior with a strong and deep love for God and her family. Barbara passed peacefully on October 12, 2025 at AVOW Hospice in Naples, Fl.

Barbara was born July 22, 1932, the daughter of Evalyn and Charles. Barbara attended the Northampton School For Girls in Northampton, Mass. While there, she became fluent in French and her friends teased her of being “deceivingly innocent.” A shy, quiet girl, she loved her family’s dogs – Scotties and Great Danes – as well as sitting on the floor reading with her father. During World War II, she and her father followed the skirmishes on a huge wall map where her father would place pins on the map to signify the war’s movements. In 1941, the War Department asked for blond female hair; Barbara donated her long, strawberry blond hair to the war effort.

Barbara attended Bethany College, where she met her future husband, Robert Schoof. They married in the Hamptons, Long Island on June 29, 1951. One year later, Barbara worked in a bank and when her pregnancy began to show, she was fired but her patient spirit was rewarded when their son Steven was born on December 14, 1952. To save money while Bob finished college, they moved to Verona, NJ to live with his parents. Eventually, they moved to Arbutus, MD and bought a home. Early on one Christmas Day in 1955, Barb and Bob woke Steve and her parents to have a brief Christmas, then off to the hospital, where Barb said that she was always grateful for the “lovely Jewish doctor” who delivered their daughter Jill. When Jill was 5 and Steve 8 years old, Barb and Bob became Christians and decided to move to Roslyn, PA so that Bob could attend Westminster Theological Seminary. Following his graduation, they moved the family to various East Coast locations as Bob was a minister and church planter. On May 18, 1968, Barb and Bob were blessed to have their second son Andrew, who later in life gave them the pure joy, laughter and love of grandchildren. During Barbara’s time of raising children and being a minister’s wife, she played the church organ and piano. As a trained classical pianist, she was asked to go on tour, but declined because of her desire to be close to family. She was also routinely recruited to “try out” her father’s inventions when he worked for Squibb and Becton-Dickerson; Barb was so proud of his most famous invention, the disposable syringe. On long car rides, Bob and Barb always had an ongoing “friendly argument” on the date of his invention, 1953 or 1955? It turned out that they were both correct! – her father invented the disposable syringe in 1953, but the patent didn’t come through until 1955. In any case, the discussion always stopped when Barb said, “Well, I should know, he was my father!” A “friendly teasing” between Barb and Bob always happened at Christmas time – did the spinning ornament move because of light or heat from the tree lights?

Barb and her husband so enjoyed doing projects together, designing ponds and gardens and of course, moving furniture and walls! Their projects came to an abrupt halt when Bob passed away peacefully on September 16, 2010. After being married for nearly 60 years, nothing has been the same for Barb, she loved her husband and being his wife was one of her true joys in life.

In 2013, Barbara moved with her family to Marco Island. She was a member of Marco Presbyterian Church, where her older son is a pastor. During her time on Marco Island, she looked forward to attending weekly Bible studies, going to the library, walking to Publix and especially spending quality time with her family.

Barbara is predeceased by her parents and her husband Robert. She leaves behind her son Steven (Beth), daughter Jill, son Andrew (Rhonda) and grandchildren Haley and Trenton. Although her family will miss her kind words, gentle spirit and beautiful smile, they know that she is happy seeing her Heavenly family and being cradled in the arms of her Lord Jesus.

A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, October 22 at 1 p.m. at Marco Presbyterian Church. Attire casual and respectful. Donations may be made in Barbara’s name to Marco Presbyterian Church, 875 W. Elkcam Circle, Marco Island, Fl 34145. In honor of Barbara’s love of spiritual music, donations will go toward the purchase of new ‘Sing’ hymnals.

Longtime Killington resident and avid skier Judy O. Findeisen passed away on January 22nd, 2025, at the age of 92.

Born October 13th, 1932, in Newport, Rhode Island, Judy was the oldest of Dorothy and Arnold Openshaw’s three children. She grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts, swimming, horseback riding and skiing. It was while attending St. Lawrence University that she met and fell in love with Walter T.C. Findeisen. They were married July 8th, 1953, in Coronado, California.

In 1960, having moved from California to Long Island, New York, Judy and Walt purchased property in Killington, Vermont. In early 1962, with their two young sons and a dog, they moved to Vermont, living in a tent from early May until mid-October. By day, Judy worked in the Killington ski shop, while Walt was working trail crew. Nights and weekends were devoted to building a home. A year later they welcomed their daughter, Tami, into the new house in the woods.

Six short years later they were at it again, building and then operating Timbers Lodge. Judy ran the lodge including breakfast and dinner for the guests.

In addition to raising her family, Judy held many different jobs, including retail sales, school bus driver, bank teller, and vacation lodge owner/manager, chef, and housekeeper.

In 1976 Judy began her career in Real Estate working alongside her husband Walt at Martin Associates Mountain Real Estate in Killington, retiring in 2020.

Judy was very active in the small but growing Killington community. She was one of the founding members of the Sherburne Women’s Club and the Sherburne Co-operative Nursery School.

She was an active member of the Killington Ski Club – helping to start what is now the annual ski sale. She was elected as Justice of the Peace in 1987 and served through 2010.

Later she enjoyed traveling with Walt and friends and was an active member of the Rutland Garden Club.

Judy is survived by her son Walter (Miriam), son Jeff (Kim), daughter Tami, grandchildren Courtney (Nate), Marc, and Sarah, and great-grandson Parker. She is also survived by her sister Lass ’56 and sisters-in-law, Babs, Ginny, Janice, Pam, and many nieces, nephews.

She was pre-deceased by her husband Walt, her brother Jim and brothers-in-law John and Charlie.

In leu of flowers please consider donating to the Shriners Hospital for Children, the Wounded Warriors Foundation or a charity of your choice.

There are no services at this time.

Nancy Coke Atwood left this earth peacefully on April 29, 2023, at the age of 90, at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass., of complications from a heart attack.

Beloved mother of four children, Nancy retired in 2003 after many years as a psychotherapist in private practice in Boston and in Wellesley, Mass. With a warm and empathetic soul, and a deep commitment to her profession, she helped hundreds of families and individuals in the Boston area to overcome adversity and live better lives. She earned a PhD from the Heller School at Brandeis University in 1983 after earning two master’s degrees in urban affairs and social work at Boston University. She was a member of the adjunct faculty at Smith College School of Social Work and author of many articles on psychology and social policy in academic journals. She was also the co-editor of an anthology of memoirs about growing up in the American working class, “Coming of Age in a Hardscrabble World,” published by the University of Georgia Press and used as a college text.

Yet the achievement she was most proud of was her four children, whom she raised mostly by herself after the death of her husband, Roger Pratt Atwood, in 1965. She enjoyed reading, cooking, classical music, and spending time with her children and grandchildren, and she was a champion Scrabble player. She was active until late in life in the Unitarian Universalist First Church in Boston. She also enjoyed travelling, cultural events, and volunteer work for many progressive causes with her partner in later years, David Berkowitz, who died in 2019.

Nancy Coke Smith was born on January 2, 1933, in Norwalk, Connecticut, the daughter of architect Perry Coke Smith and artist and teacher Martha (“Patty”) Cary Smith, née Pratt, later Miller. Nancy graduated with a degree in English from Wellesley College in 1954 and later worked as a public-school teacher. Always creative and energetic, and with a spirit of compassion for those less privileged, she worked at several hospitals and mental-health facilities. She later developed a successful, licensed psychotherapy practice at her home in the Bay Village neighborhood of Boston, specializing in family therapy and substance abuse treatment. At Christmas every year, she would receive stacks of cards from her grateful patients.

Until 2007 she spent part of the year in her beloved house on Jerusalem Road in Cohasset, where she enjoyed walks on the beach and was an active member of the Straits Pond Watershed Association. She lived later at 36 Irving Street in Cambridge, until moving to Cadbury Commons nursing home in August 2022. She is survived by daughters Emily G. Gawboy of Leominster, Mass., and Gwendolyn C. Atwood, of Ghent, N.Y.; and sons Roger Alexander Atwood, of Washington, D.C., and Christopher P. Atwood, of Havertown, Penn., and a brother, Monty Johnston, of Natural Bridge Station, Va., and six grandchildren.

October 30, 1933 (Lahore, Punjab) – June 4, 2023 (Newton, Mass., USA)

Marguerite Helen Velte Hasbrouck was born in Lahore, Punjab (today Pakistan), where her father was a professor of English at Forman Christian College. When she was three years old, her parents brought her back to the U.S. in search of better treatment for tuberculosis and osteomyelitis in her legs. A year later, she was told she should give up hope of walking unaided. “That’s what you think”, she told the doctor, sticking out her tongue at him. She cast off her leg braces and crutches not long afterward, became a strong walker, swimmer, and paddler, and delighted in defying anyone who underestimated her strength, endurance — or wit.

Due to her childhood illnesses, she didn’t start formal schooling until eighth grade, but she graduated from high school at sixteen and earned a degree in comparative government and religion at Barnard College. “I thought of being a lawyer”, she said decades later, “but I was timid, and law school wasn’t what women did.”

Marguerite raised three children – “each very different, and each of whom I helped to be their different selves”, she would say proudly – and worked at a variety of administrative, editorial, and legal jobs including at Wellesley College, where her role included representing the college to the Wellesley Chamber of Commerce, and later as editor of a computer industry trade journal. As co-chair of the Bates School PTA, Marguerite co-founded the Bates Pumpkin Festival, which became an annual town institution that has continued for more than fifty years. After getting involved in Wellesley town politics through the League of Women Voters, she served as an elected member of the Town Meeting and the School Committee and an appointed member of the Advisory Committee.

In 1987, as administrator of the Arlington Street Church in Boston, she testified at a Congressional hearing on break-ins at churches that offered sanctuary to refugees from U.S. wars in Central America. She spent the last decade before her retirement as a paralegal at the Nature Conservancy, where she took special joy in being able to help protect the place she felt most at home, Lake George in the Adirondacks. But she most wanted to be thought of as a writer and a musician. She played organ and piano, sang, and served on the board of the Old West Organ Society.

Marguerite was a member of the Wellesley Friends Meeting and a regular attender for almost thirty years of the Friends Meeting at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk, which she had helped organize in response to a request from one of the incarcerated men. She was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Policy Coalition, facilitated Alternatives to Violence Project workshops at prisons throughout New England, and received a lifetime achievement award from the Massachusetts Department of Correction for her volunteer work.

Marguerite was active in Quaker witness for peace and justice, including as clerk of several committees of the Wellesley Friends Meeting and the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, as a contributor to Peacework magazine and a volunteer at the New England office of the American Friends Service Committee, and as a member of AFSC’s national board of directors.

As a legal worker, Marguerite served on the board of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and worked as a volunteer with the NLG Military Law Task Force and the GI Rights Hotline.

Marguerite is survived by her partner of more than 30 years, Jim Casteris (P.O. Box 783, Winterport, ME 04496) and his family; son Robert Hasbrouck of Boxborough, MA; daughter Dorothy McDonald and son-in-law Bob McDonald of Sudbury, MA; son Edward Hasbrouck and daughter-in-law Ruth Radetsky of San Francisco, CA; grandson Kyle A. H. McDonald of Concord, NH; sister Lois Carstens of West Brandywine, PA; and many friends.

A concert and memorial meeting in the manner of Friends (Quakers) will be held under the care of the Wellesley Friends Meeting in hybrid format, in person in Wellesley and online, on Sunday, 5 November 2023. All are welcome.

Donations in Marguerite’s memory may be made to AFSC.

Elinor Ann (Frey) Schaeffer was born on May 26, 1932 in Jackson Heights, New York to parents Herman Edgar Frey and Irmgard Afflerbach. She died at her home on November 5, 2021 in Plano, Texas. After graduating from Northampton School for Girls in Northampton, Massachusetts, Ellie attended Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts where she met the love of her life, Lew Schaeffer, at a co-ed dance between Simmons University and MIT. They were married on May 31, 1952. Ellie and Lew spent 66 happy years raising three wonderful children. Like her parents, Ellie was the consummate entrepreneur. As a young child she had a paper route and creatively sold pictures she and her sisters painted. While raising her family as a loving mother and wife, she had successful ventures in Sales and Real Estate. Her perseverance and independent spirit has been an inspiration for her children and grandchildren. Ellie was an enthusiastic supporter of nature and wildlife causes. She enjoyed traveling the world, working in various National Parks around the US, playing bridge, and participating in many civics events. Ellie is survived by her son Jeff (Phuong), daughter Cindy (Helen), son Greg (Michele); grandchildren Andrew and Alyssa Schaeffer, Emma, Ellie, Eli and Abigail Schaeffer; and her sisters Sandy Miedema and Judy LaFavor. She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Edgar Laurence, and her husband, Lew. A Memorial Service to celebrate her life will be held at 11:30am on Friday, November 19, 2021 at Allen Family Funeral Options. She will be laid to rest with her husband Lew at the Dallas/Ft. Worth National Cemetery. If desired, in lieu of flowers, please donate to the Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary, 1 Nature Place, McKinney, Texas 75069 heardmuseum.org