Katherine Warner Johnson
If the world seems a little quieter, it’s because Katherine Warner Johnson exited it on December 4, 2025, leaving those who loved her with the memories of her infectious kindness, her sense of adventure, her shock of pink hair, and her booming cackle.
Katherine was born on August 22, 1949, to Dave and Libbie Johnson in Rochester, New York. As a child, her family moved to a farm outside of Princeton, New Jersey, where she grew up surrounded by natural beauty. She graduated from Princeton Day School and then the University of Maryland, her parents’ alma mater, before moving to New York City, where she began working in publishing. It was through that work that she met her husband, Richard Schmeltzer, over the phone. After a long-distance courtship, they married in 1985, and Katherine made the move to Dick’s home state of Minnesota, which she would call home for the rest of her life.
In Minnesota, Katherine worked at Fingerhut, and then as a Senior Buyer at Lifetouch Studios, where she created lifelong friendships that extended well beyond her career. However, she was never content to be in one place. She and Dick, as well as numerous other family and friends, traveled the world. In her life, Katherine traveled to 84 countries and all seven continents, including Antarctica. Her final international adventure was just this past summer to the Pantanal region of Brazil, where she saw jaguars, anteaters, capybaras, giant otters, and the Hyacinth Macaw. She also spent September in Cape May, New Jersey, swimming and birding with her family in what she called her “happy place.”
Katherine was meticulously organized, and served as the family photographer, picking up the role previously held by her father and getting better with every trip she took. She cataloged thousands of photos and gifted her loved ones with albums of their trips together and their family history. At the time of her passing, she was working on digitizing recipes handwritten by her grandmother, Maud.
Katherine will be remembered as a force of nature, a vibrant and inspiring woman who made friends everywhere she went and fiercely supported those she loved. Her home was always open to friends and visitors, where she would pour you a glass of wine and immediately ask about everything going on in your life. She loved gardening, photography, and theater. And she was extraordinarily generous, whether it was with her time, her money to organizations like the Crane Trust and WWF, her advice, or her Delta miles. She leaves the world immensely loved, and is surely now somewhere laughing with her adoring husband, who predeceased her.
She is survived by her brother, David, his wife Kathy, and their family, Will, Tom, Becky, Ben, and Teddy; her sister Beth, her husband Turner Price, and their children and spouses, Jaya, Mattie, Olivia, Brian and Jack; and stepson, Dick Schmeltzer Jr. and his wife Jolene; as well as countless friends and neighbors whose lives she has touched. We will miss her deeply, and every new adventure taken will be taken in her honor.
Donations in her honor can be sent to organizations that support nature and humanity, including the Crane Trust, World Wildlife Fund, and the World Central Kitchen.
Memorial service will be in the spring.
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Constance Ann Gibbons
Constance Ann Gibbons died on January 7, 2026 at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center. She was 73.
Ms. Gibbons was raised and resided in Princeton for many years. She also lived in Montclair, NJ; Manhattan, NY; Paris, France; and London, England for significant portions of her life.
Constance graduated from St. Paul’s Elementary School in Princeton and Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville. She attended the American College in Paris and the University of Paris (Sorbonne), received a B.A. in Art History from Wells College, an M.A. in Art History from American University (DC), and undertook further postgraduate study at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She also modeled for Harper’s Bazaar and Town & Country magazines.
A highly skilled art historian, Ms. Gibbons was head of the Research Department of the Bettmann Archive for many years. She also held positions with the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Modern Art, Horst P. Horst and Sotheby Parke Bernet Galleries.
Later in her life, Ms. Gibbons embarked on a second career as a private banker and rose to the position of International Marketing Director for Merrill Lynch in London. She was retired at the time of her death.
Constance was a longtime member of the Regency Whist Club of New York and the Junior League of Greater Princeton.
Ms. Gibbons was predeceased by her parents, James T. Gibbons, Sr. and Geraldine Clifford Gibbons and a brother, James T. Gibbons, Jr. She is survived by a brother, F. Clifford Gibbons of Lawrenceville.
Arrangements were private.
Extend condolences and share memories at TheKimbleFuneralHome.com.
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Eloise Frederick Bruce
Eloise Frederick Bruce, of Lawrence, NJ, died at her home on Thursday, January 1, 2026. She passed in her sleep, from complications of the Flu. She was born on June 18, 1951 to Byron Sanford Bruce Jr. and Norma Jean Moore in Opelika, Alabama. She was the oldest of three children. She is pre-deceased by her parents and her brother Byron Bruce III and is survived by her brother Michael Bruce. They where raised in Alabama and Florida.
Eloise loved the theater. She was educated at Wesleyan College, receiving a BA in Theater in 1973. There she established lifelong college friends and had many friendship reunions over the years. She continued her studies at Mercer University, receiving a M. Ed. In 1975. She completed her studies at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, receiving a MFA in Directing in 1978. After completing her studies, she worked in Idaho with the Asolo Touring Theater from 1978 to 1980 as a director and actor. She then became an adjunct Professor at Boise State University from 1981-1988. During those years she was also the director for the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and the Idaho Theater for the Youth.
Eloise moved to New Jersey to work as the Creative Theater Artistic Director from 1989-1995. She married David Michael Keller on August 7, 1994, in a beautiful ceremony at the Frost Place in Franconia, NH.
For years, Eloise worked with the Young Audience of New Jersey where she established dear lifetime theater friends. Besides theater, Eloise also enjoyed writing poetry. She is a published Poet. She was also an active member of the Cool Women Poetry group since 1996. They wrote volumes of poems and read them in libraries, schools, and at the Grounds For Sculpture. There she established lifetime poetry friends. She was a recipient of a poetry fellowship from the NJ State council on the Arts. Eloise was also a board member for the Trenton Museum Society governing Ellarslie, the Trenton City Museum from 1998 to 2002. While volunteering Eloise made lifetime volunteer friends. Eloise loved to inspire kids to act and write. She loved being with other teachers that also inspired those kids, making lifetime teaching friends. Long recognized as a “Master Teaching Artist,” Eloise worked in NJ schools for over 40 years. She was a recipient of the Governor’s Award in Arts Education. Eloise was also a member of the Landmark and Couples Coaching Couples groups, keeping in touch with many of those friends.
She will be greatly missed by her husband, family, and all her lifetime friends from college, theater, poetry, teaching, volunteering, Landmark, and Couples Coaching Couples.
A celebration of her life will be held at a future date this spring. The date will be posted on her Facebook page and given to any friends that request a notification through Eloise’s email.
Eloise would have wanted us to remember her by her poem titled “I Love You”:
We knew our blood would freeze
and we kept saying we loved
and the warm breaths and the soft sounds
seeped into the cracks around the words
until they became a destination
and we hung a hammock
between the I and the You
so we could rest.
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Samuel Waldron Lambert III
Samuel W. Lambert III died on Jan. 16, 2026, peacefully at home with his family at his side. He was born in New York City on Jan. 12, 1938, to Dr. Samuel W. and Mary H. Lambert of New York City and Lawrenceville, NJ. He was a descendant of a long line of doctors in New York City, including a Dean of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, a President of the American Medical Association, a Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, and a one-eyed surgeon. He was also descended from the Rev. Jonathan Dickenson, the first President of what is now Princeton University; the Rev. Samuel M. Hamill, the Headmaster of The Lawrenceville School for 50 years; Mr. Thomas Willets, the first Mayor of New York City under the British; and Captain John Underhill, leader of the Colonial Forces.
Sam graduated from The Buckley School, Groton School, Yale University, and Harvard Law School. At Groton and Yale, Sam was a dedicated oarsman. At Yale, he stroked the 1957 undefeated heavyweight freshman crew and the 1958 undefeated four shell.
After serving in the U.S. Army Reserves, Sam joined the late Albridge C. Smith III in the practice of law in Princeton, NJ, forming a partnership in 1967, which later became Smith, Lambert, Cook & Miller. Sam was the managing partner of the firm, which he merged with Drinker, Biddle & Reath of Philadelphia. At the Princeton office, Sam was elected the firm’s first non-Philadelphia based managing partner. Sam specialized in trusts and estates, private foundations, and other non-profit corporations. He retired in 2003.
Sam served his local community and beyond for many years as a board member of various nonprofit organizations including Princeton Day School, Planned Parenthood of NJ, The Open Space Institute, The New Jersey Conservation Foundation, The Bunbury Foundation, The Winslow Foundation, and The Curtis McGraw Foundation.
Sam enjoyed spending time with his extended family, including his loving wife, Casey Lambert; his children: Kelly L. Walker, Samuel W. Lambert, Sarah H. Lambert; his stepchildren: Hilary R. Hegener, Peter C. Hegener; all of their spouses; and 15 grandchildren, with whom he shared his love of fly fishing, nature, conservation, animals (especially his beloved cat Posey), tennis, traveling the world, eating good food, humor, the Giants football team, and socializing with friends.
A memorial service will be held at Trinity Church in Princeton, NJ, on Saturday, January 24 at 11 a.m., with a reception to follow at Springdale Golf Club. In lieu of flowers, donations in Sam’s memory may be made to: The Yale Crew Association and Planned Parenthood of Mercer County, NJ.
Arrangements are under the direction of Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.
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Victoria Chu Moy
Victoria Chu was born in New York City on December 15, 1931, the eighth of what would be nine children of Ting Wing and Virginia Chu. Raised in the Bronx, Victoria was a proud graduate of the High School of Music & Art and Parsons School of Design. When she was 8, she met teenager Douglas Moy who was visiting her older sister Florence. He told Victoria he’d come back for her in 10 years, and kept his word. They were married in Marble Collegiate Church and moved to New Jersey.
Victoria and Doug moved to Princeton, NJ, in 1963, where their youngest of three daughters was born. Victoria loved the arts scene in Princeton and attended innumerable concerts, gallery and museum exhibits, art openings, and craft shows. Along with taking and teaching art classes in various media, she volunteered with AFS, Arts Council, Princeton Art Association, Race for the Cure, and the Breast Cancer Resource Center. Her drawings, ceramics, and paintings have been in shows and are on display in the tri-state area. Victoria could often be seen sketching people at concerts or Small World Café.
Health issues led Victoria Moy to move to Pennsylvania to live with her daughters in 2020. Doug had died the year before. Victoria Chu Moy died in her sleep on January 11, 2026. She is survived by daughters Denise, Leslie (Don Randall), and Nanci Moy; older brother Wallace Chu; and five generations of cousins, nieces, and nephews.
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In Memoriam
Sheridan Patricia Hotung
27 March 1973 – 2 January 2026
Our beloved Sheridan has passed away unexpectedly. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA, Sheridan was the great-granddaughter of Sir Robert Hotung, Kt, KBE, daughter of the late Eric Edward Hotung, CBE, and Patricia Anne Shea Hotung, and the youngest child of a family of eight siblings.
Sheridan is survived by her brothers Michael, Eric, Sean, and Anthony, and sisters Mara Tegwen and Gabrielle. Her brother Robert passed away in 2012.
Sheridan was the mother of four children, Tristan, Saskia, Leif, and Mary. She is also survived by her husband, John.
Sheridan lived a full and active life. Known for her laughter and positive outlook, she benefited from a truly multicultural heritage, living and working in the U.K. as well as the USA, where she settled about 20 years ago.
Sheridan graduated from Georgetown University College of Arts and Sciences and then worked in fashion and creative industries at Trish McEvoy Cosmetics and Cartier. She earned a Montessori diploma, focusing on a child-centric philosophies that emphasise early development, practical life skills, sensorial education, and academic subjects, and also founded Crestwood Montessori School in New Jersey. She became a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT) and formed Genesis Reading LLC, an educational platform that transformed literacy for children, parents, and educators through science-based reading intervention. She was a dedicated educator and an admired leader in her field, specializing in the care and teaching of children with special needs. At the time of her passing, she was leading an ambitious project to distribute a game she had created, Vowel Powa(R), for children challenged with orthodox teaching methods in reading and writing.
Sheridan made time between her family life and her professional career to help many, and in addition to her charitable donations, she also volunteered for the DC Prison System, helping inmates to improve their basic educational skills.
A celebration of Sheridan’s life was held on Thursday, 8 January 2026 at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Skillman, New Jersey.
Donations in her memory can be made to support her ongoing gift of literacy. Please visit genesisreading.com and click the GoFundMe tab.