A memorial service for George E. Schindler, Jr. will be held on Saturday, February 24, at 5:00 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton, 50 Cherry Hill Road, Princeton, New Jersey.
George was a leader in our Society, organizing and hosting meetings in his homes in New Providence and, later, Montgomery. He was active over several decades. In addition to the usual repertoire, George was fond of playing arrangements of music from composers not traditionally associated with classical guitar, such as Jerome Kern, Victor Herbert, Henry Mancini, and George Gershwin.
Gad Berger will be representing the New Jersey Classical Guitar Society at the service, playing some of the music that George enjoyed and performed. Members are invited to attend.
————————–
George E. Schindler Jr., a passionate hiker, backpacker, and environmentalist, died on February 9 in Princeton, N.J., at Acorn Glen Assisted Living. He was 94. The probable cause of death was pneumonia.
Mr. Schindler was born in 1923 in Carnegie, Pa., son of George E. Schindler Sr. and Stella Victoria Cox. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the tail end of World War II; his military specialty was meteorology. Before enlisting, he had patched together the resources to study chemical engineering at Carnegie Tech for two years; afterwards, thanks to his army training and the GI Bill, he pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina and then at the University of Chicago, from which institution he was awarded a B.S. in Meteorology. His interests having shifted to English literature, he earned his M.A. from the University of Pittsburgh. During those early years, he taught himself to play the classical guitar. A lifelong lover of literature, Mr. Schindler was extremely well read, favoring the works of George Bernard Shaw and Charles Dickens. He himself wrote two unpublished novels.
He married Faith Sayre in 1946, and the couple had three daughters. The family lived for many years in New Providence, N.J. In his thirty-one years with AT&T Bell Laboratories, Mr. Schindler edited a technical journal at the Bell Labs facility in Murray Hill, N.J., during the glory years of that company. In the four years preceding his retirement, he was department head in charge of a multivolume history project as well as of the Bell Laboratory archives.
George Schindler was never happier than when outdoors, whether camping, backpacking, or canoeing. He mapped trails and led hikes all over the country. His love of hiking grew into a deep commitment to preserving the natural landscape. He was instrumental in blocking a proposed dam at Tocks Island on the Delaware River, a dam that would have destroyed the nearby lake known as Sunfish Pond as well as spoiling the beauty of the Delaware’s free flow. As forestry coordinator for the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club and member of the board of directors of the NJ Audubon Society, his efforts contributed to the passage of the New Jersey Natural Areas Systems Act in 1975. Among the many other environmental causes for which he fought tirelessly were the preservation of the Pine Barrens and the protection of the Great Swamp from the incursion of a proposed jetport.
Well into his retirement, he made three trips to Alaska. He volunteered at the Lyons VA Hospital where his father spent the last few years of his life. Mr. Schindler’s wife died in 1999. He had been her loving caregiver during her long illness. He leaves his sister, Judy Reams of Walnut Creek, Calif.; his sister-in-law, Jeri Schindler of Klamath Falls, Ore.; his three daughters, Karen Baart of Brookline, Mass., Heather Lovett of Hopewell, N.J., and Sarah Schindler of New York, N.Y.; his two grandsons, Frank Lovett and Nathaniel Lovett; and two great-grandchildren. His younger brother, John Robert Schindler, died in 2009.
In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations to the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club (www.sierraclub.org/new-jersey) or the Environmental Defense Fund (www.edf.org).
