Jean M. Roberts, 88, of Landenberg, died Wednesday, June 17, at Calvert Manor Healthcare Center. She was the wife of Jonathan “JJ” Roberts, who died in 2001, and with whom she shared 54 years of marriage.
Born in Bel Air, Md., she was the daughter of the late Wiley and Lydia Kennedy McMillan.
Jean was an executive secretary at Hercules, Inc., in Wilmington for 20 years, retiring in 1972. After her retirement, she worked as a bookkeeper for her husband’s company, J. J. Roberts and Son Co.
She was a member of the Toughkenamon Presbyterian Church. She enjoyed sewing, making her own clothing and being with her family and friends.
She is survived by three sons, Kenneth J. Roberts and his wife Deborah of Landenberg, Brian J. Roberts and his wife Barbara of Avondale, and Paul J. Roberts and his wife Pam of Rising Sun, Md.; one brother, Swanson McMillan of Gainesville, Ga.; one sister, Lorraine Fraim of Gainesville, Ga.; six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Her Graveside service will be held at 11 a,m, Thursday, June 25, at the Union Hill Cemetery, Route 82, Kennett Square, PA.
Jean vandenHengel (Nee Bergh), 93, of West Grove, died Friday, June 12, attended by her family at Jenner’s Pond Retirement Community. She was the wife of George John vandenHengel Sr., who died in 2005, and with whom she shared 58 years of marriage.
Born in Philadelphia, she was the daughter of the late Jeannette Johnson and Dr. Charles J. Bergh.
She was a kindergarten teacher at Greentree and Sugartown Schools for 40 years, retiring in 1980.
Jean grew up in Oakmont , Haverford Township. After graduating from Haverford High School, Jean went on to the University of Minnesota, to study music. With her beautiful soprano voice, Jean sang with Demitri Metropolis and the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. She was a 45-year member of the choir of Good Samaritan Church in Paoli.
She is survived by six children, Karen (Chip), Jack (Marilyn), Eric (Joanne), Peter (Debra), Bart (Kim) and Scott (Jodie).
Predeceased by sister, Margaret and brother, Jack.
Her Memorial service was Wednesday, June 17, at 2:00 p.m. at the Church of the Good Samaritan, 212 W. Lancaster Ave. in Paoli. Interment was in the Church Memorial garden.
Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the National Parkinson’s Foundation, Gift Processing Center, P.O. Box 5018, Hagerstown, MD 21741-5018
Peter Sprague Wellington, 74, of Kennett Square, died Saturday June 13, at the Christiana Hospital in Newark. He was the husband of Judith French Wellington, with whom he shared 51 years of marriage.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, he was a son of the late Arthur Marshall and the late Miriam Guernsey (Sprague) Wellington.
He graduated from The Pennsylvania State University and Columbia Law. He worked at ICI, at Consolidated Coal where he became general counsel, and at DuPont as head of Mergers and Acquisitions.
After retiring from professional life he served as the president of the Wilmington branch of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and a board member of Delaware Hospice.
He ran marathons in the 1970s, sailed on the Chesapeake in the 2000s, and had a lifelong love of travel and exploration.
Survivors include in addition to his wife, three daughters, Melissa French Wellington of Arden, Melanie Anne Wellington (Michael Marini) of Rochester, N.Y. and Elizabeth Wellington Jeffords (Steven) of Basel, Switzerland; one son, David Chandler (Jennifer Dikes) of Brooklyn, N.Y.; one brother Tom Wellington (Joan) of Gathersburg, Md. and three grandchildren, Jessica, Imogen and Griffin.
Services and interment will be held privately. Contributions in his memory may be made to Amyloidosis Foundation, Inc. 7151 N. Main St. Suite 2 Clarkston, MI 48346. Arrangements are being handled by the Kuzo & Grieco Funeral Home Inc. (610-444-4116) of Kennett Square. To view his online tribute and to share a memory with his family, please visit www.griecocares.com
Charles Minor Barringer, of Kennett Square, died on June 13 after a short decline. He was born Nov. 17, 1920, in Locust Valley N.Y., the son of Lucy (Minor) and Paul B. Barringer, Jr. Minor graduated from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va. and from Princeton University in the class of 1942, later going on to receive his masters’ and doctorate degrees in chemistry from Princeton.
After participating in a naval training program in the summer of 1940, Minor was commissioned in 1941 in the US Navy, and served as Assistant and then Chief Engineer on the destroyers USS Bristol and USS Trathen. He mustered out as a lieutenant commander in November 1945.
In December 1942 Minor married Mary M. Pratt, who predeceased him in 2012. They lived for 50 years on Center Mill Road before moving to Kendal in 2001. From 1949 to 1965 Minor worked for the E.I. DuPont Company in the organic chemicals and elastomers departments. He then resigned to engage in consulting and community service in minority business relations in Wilmington, where he helped found the West Center City Early Learning Center. He was also active in open space preservation and land use planning in Kennett Township and the Brandywine River watershed. He and Mollie were members of Christ Church in Greenville, Delaware.
Minor’s interests included history, science, the environment, gardening, fly-fishing, travel, meteorology, and woodworking. To the end of his life he kept up with current events and research on Alzheimer’s disease, and kept in close touch with a far-flung family in Europe, Australia, and many areas of the U.S.
He is survived by his two daughters: Mary Barringer of Shelburne Falls, Mass., and her spouse J Doster; and Elizabeth Barringer of Cambridge, Mass. and her husband John Clark; daughter-in-law Therese Barringer of Haddonfield, N.J.; six grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. His son Charles M Barringer Jr. predeceased him in 2010, as did a daughter, Lucy, in 1950.
A memorial service will be held at a later date. Please check www.griecocares.com for updates. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Minor’s name to Canine Partners for Life P.O. Box 170 Cochranville, PA 19330 or to the Red Clay Valley Association, 1760 Unionville-Wawaset Rd., West Chester, PA 19382, or to West Center City Early Learning Center, 600 No. Madison St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Arrangements are being handled by the Kuzo & Grieco Funeral Home Inc. (610-444-4116) of Kennett Square. To view his online tribute or to share a memory with his family, please visit www.griecocares.com.
Ada P. Boswell, 92, of West Chester, formerly of West Grove, died Tuesday June 16, at the Pembrooke Nursing home in West Chester. She was the wife of the late Joseph Boswell who died in 1973 and with whom she shared 30 years of marriage.
Born in Cochranville, she was a daughter of the late Edward and the late Sara (Evans) Prange.
Ada was a floor clerk for JJ Newberry in Kennett Square for many years. She loved TV and was a longtime member of the Calvary Baptist Church in Avondale.
Survivors include two sons, Joseph Boswell (Mary) of Nottingham, and Terry Boswell (Linda) of Honeybrook; one daughter, Sharon B. Boyer (Kevin) of West Grove, eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by eight brothers and sisters and a daughter Linda E. Fogleman in 2006.
You are invited to visit with Ada’s family and friends from 11 a.m. -12:30 p.m. Monday, June 22, at the Foulk & Grieco Funeral Home Inc. (610-869-2685) 200 Rose Hill Rd. West Grove, PA 19390. A funeral service celebrating her life will follow at 12:30. Interment will be held privately. To view her online tribute and to share a memory with her family, please visit www.griecocares.com
It might be too soon for most people to think about pumpkins, but it’s not too soon for the man who grows the gourds for the Chadds Ford Historical Society’s Great Pumpkin Carve.
H.G. Haskell is already on the job. Haskell, owner of Hill Girt Farm in Pennsbury Township, just finished planting seeds for this year’s crop dedicated to the joys of carving Jack O’ lanterns and other fanciful forms of pumpkin dismemberment.
Haskell grows two varieties of pumpkins, Atlantic Giant and Prize Winner. Both are easy to grow, he said, but the Prize Winner pumpkin is smaller and the individual fruits are more uniformly round. They work best for carvers who like to start out by using a stencil.
Pumpkin planting is still done by hand.
The Atlantic Giants are the big ones, often weighing more than 400 pounds and Haskell said he grew one that weighed in at 580 pounds. The Atlantic Giants are better for carvers who go free hand all the way, he said.
The planting is done by hand in June and the fruits set — flowers growing out of the vines — in July. They grow quickly and harvesting is done in October.
Two flowers grow per fruit, one male and one female. The female flower becomes the pumpkin after bees do their thing going from male to female.
Haskell, whose family has owned the farm for more than 100 years, said he tries to get four or five pumpkins per vine, while the plant itself tries to grow 100 flowers. And he does that in less than two acres of his farm.
He treats for insects and diseases and ultimately hopes to get 500 plants for two carves and some retailers, but he’s just as much into the tradition of “The Carve.”
“My kids have lived through this from the time they were little until they moved away,” he said. “And The Carve is all about the kids.”
Chadds Ford Live will be keeping tabs on the pumpkin crop throughout the growing season and into the night of the Great Pumpkin Carve.
(Top photo: H.G. Haskell finishes fertilizing the soil so the pumpkins can be planted.)
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
A new dog rescue group is building its presence and hopes to be building its own facility within two years. First, though, it needs people.
Michele Amendola, one of three women who launched DogsHome, said her group not only rescues and fosters dogs, but they also place them for adoption and train them, even after the dogs are in their new permanent homes with an adopting family.
“We spent a lot of time thinking about what we wanted to do and what makes us different,” Amendola said. “We offer training so that when adopters come to DogsHome to adopt, they’ll get a trained dog. Not only will they get a trained dog but, even after the adoption, we will be there for the entire life of the dog, supporting them with training, advice and any behavior issues.”
She said DogsHome would remain a “hot line” for the adopting families.
And if they can’t place a dog they’ve taken in as a rescue, DogsHome will keep the animal for the remainder of its life. Amendola was emphatic: “We are a no-kill rescue.”
“No healthy, friendly animal is going to be euthanized,” Amendola said.
However, she and Carin Ford, another of the founders, both said that any situations regarding an overly aggressive dog, one that bites, would be examined and that no dangerous dog will be placed in society.
“If that dog can’t be rehomed, that dog will stay with us,” Ford said.
Ford said the combination of training and the ongoing support is rare and what sets DogsHome apart. Regular shelters don’t do that.
“I have watched wonderful dogs deteriorate the longer they’re kept confined in a small cage with limited exercise and with none of their basic [social] needs being met…They’re dogs, they need to bark and chew and scratch and dig and sniff. They need to run,” Ford said.
In the two months Dogs Home has been working with Timmy. he’s gone from a dog that couldn’t tolerate being on a leash, to one that is odebdient.
Ford added that she, Amendola, a third partner and all eight members of the board — which includes animal behaviorists and veterinarians — have more than 200 years combined experience in dog training, sheltering and animal welfare. Ford herself is a certified dog trainer and Amendola is currently taking courses for her certification.
“We want to provide these dogs with what they need to thrive. Not just survive, but to thrive,” Ford said. “When you come to adopt from us, or even foster, you’re not getting a dog that’s been leaping and throwing its body against a cage to a point where his tail and half his body turned into a bloody mess.”
Amendola said DogsHome also makes sure all their dogs have been examined by veterinarians, are up to date of their shots, are micro-chipped and are spayed or neutered. Those veterinary services and the training are included in the $250 adoption fee.
“You’re getting as clean a bill of health, both behaviorally and physically as anybody can give you,” Ford said.
The number of dogs they can rescue is dependent on the number of volunteers and fostering families they can get.
DogsHome just launched and will accept any breed of dog and any size. So far they are working with two dogs, Timmy, a 1-year-old pit bull and Finn, a 12-year-old cairn terrier mix that “looks like Toto from the Wizard of Oz,” according go Amendola.
Finn, short for Finnegan, belonged to a Philadelphia woman who died of cancer. Her family could not take care of Finn after her death.
Timmy was a rescue from a home in Delaware County where, for his first 10 months, he was kept in a crate and otherwise ignored, hollered at or slapped. The owners were thinking about taking it to a shelter.
Ford said Timmy was unable to walk on a leash and even shied away from being petted. After two months working with Ford, Timmy’s command set now includes sit, down, come, wait, drop it, shake, heel and turn around. He’s also started agility training and is taking swimming lessons to get him accustomed to deep water.
Timmy is currently being boarded at a local facility while waiting for a permanent home, but Ford works with him daily.
Amendola, Ford and the others began their efforts to create DogsHome in April 2014. While they have two dogs now, they’re looking for a facility of their own so they can rescue and work with more animals. But they also need money and volunteers who are willing to foster to help bring their dream to fruition.
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
Hi, I’m Bubba, an 8-year-old terrier and American pit mix and I am one of the sweetest dogs you will ever meet. I spent much of my life at the end of a heavy metal chain and now that I am free of that situation I am soaking up all of the love I can. I’m content to sit next to you and accept all the hugs you want to give me, and answer right back with lots of kisses. They say I am 8 but I play like a dog half that age. I love to play fetch and am quite agile. Will you come meet me and bring me into a loving family like yours? I would be forever grateful.
Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan announced in a press release that a former Iron Workers bank employee is facing multiple felony charges for stealing more than $430,000 over a 10-year period from elderly bank customers and from the estates of the deceased. The announcement comes at the conclusion of a three-month-long investigation conducted by Det. Michele Deery of the District Attorney’s Criminal Investigation Economic Crime Unit with assistance from Iron Workers Bank.
Catherine Allmän is charged with stealing more than $430,000 from eight bank customers.
Catherine Allman, 60, of the 500 block of Walnut Lane in Philadelphia, is charged with theft by unlawful taking or disposition, receiving stolen property, forgery-unauthorized act in writing, theft by deception, criminal use of communication facility, identity theft, and other theft related charges.
The theft was discovered in September 2014, when the branch manager of the Iron Workers Bank in Chadds Ford was contacted by an attorney regarding unusual activity involving the estate of one of their members who was deceased. A transaction occurred on the deceased victim’s account in August of 2014, after she had passed away in July of 2014.
After further investigation by the branch manager, she noticed that the customer’s address had been changed to a post office box in Aston. She recognized the P.O. BOX address as the same address as one of their long-time employees, Catherine Allman who was the branch manager at the Aston location. She notified the vice president of Iron Workers Bank, who immediately began investigating the matter by pulling the involved accounts.
However, before he could speak with Allman, she left for the day, telling her co-workers that she needed to go switch out a car at her mother’s house. She never returned. On Sept. 18, 2014, the vice president contacted Allman on the phone, and Allman admitted to taking the money from customers’ accounts. When asked how long she had been stealing, she told him “since June” without specifying a year.
As a result of the investigation conducted by Det. Michele Deery of the District Attorney’s Criminal Investigation Economic Crime Unit, it was discovered that Allman’s relative and mother had an account at Iron Workers Bank, and that Allman was the signatory on her mother’s account. Allman would transfer monies to these accounts and then make withdrawals. Through the investigation, it was determined that the theft started in Jan. 2004 and continued until the summer of 2014 when Allman was confronted. Allman stole money from eight different Iron Worker bank account holders, all elderly women, half of whom were deceased. After obtaining a search warrant for Allman’s Wells Fargo bank account, Deery discovered that Allman made numerous cash deposits into the account, around the same time the cash withdrawals were taken from the eight victims’ Iron Workers Bank accounts, all without their permission. In total, she made $439,019.17 in unauthorized withdrawals from victims’ accounts.
“Ms. Allman knowingly and fraudulently stole from elderly, vulnerable customers, siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars into her personal account for her own selfish gain. She took advantage of her position of authority and her employer’s trust and she will be held accountable for her actions,” said District Attorney Jack Whelan. “I want to commend Det. Michele Deery for her exemplary work on this complicated case and thank Iron Workers Bank for promptly reporting the theft and assisting us with the investigation. Our Economic Crime Unit is dedicated to guarding local businesses against fraud and thoroughly investigating all matters of theft.”
On June 15 Catherine Allman came to the Criminal Investigation Unit in the District Attorney’s Office with her attorney. Allman was read her rights and admitted to the theft in its entirety. Allman was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Deborah Krull who set bail at $100,000 unsecured. The preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 1.
Assistant District Attorney Brian Doherty will be prosecuting the case.
