Idamae G. Trenner
Idamae G. Trenner died peacefully at home in Princeton on Friday, April 12, after a long illness. Her four siblings, several nieces and nephews, and many friends spent precious time with her during her final weeks. Although Idamae embraced independence in most aspects of life, she made and kept a lot of friends of varied ages and backgrounds over her 83 years.
Born on July 20, 1940, Idamae was the eldest of the five children of Dr. Nelson Richards Trenner Sr. and Kathryn Farrell Trenner. Except for one year in each of Uppsala, Sweden; Washington, D.C.; and New York City, she always lived in New Jersey: in Westfield from 1940-1991 and Princeton from 1991-2024.
Idamae graduated in 1958 from Westfield Senior High School, where she was an excellent student and won the award as the top female athlete, and in 1962 from the College of St. Elizabeth, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. After graduation, she began what became one of the highlights of her life: working in the laboratory of Peyton Rous at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City. (Prof. Rous was awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discoveries in virology and oncology.)
Following her time at the Rockefeller Institute, she joined Merck & Co. After three years working in drug R&D at Merck and three years teaching biology at Saint Aloysius Academy in Jersey City, Idamae decided to follow her heart and began what turned out to be a highly satisfying career as an executive of the Girl Scouts of America.
One of the happiest aspects of her GSA years was spending some 20 summers as director of Camp Lou Henry Hoover on Swartswood Lake in Middleville, NJ, as well as one summer as director of Camp Blue Bay in East Hampton, LI. She loved her camp summers. Several friends who came to visit her in recent weeks shared fond and often highly amusing memories of Idamae as the kind, enthusiastic, but no-nonsense camp director. A few years ago, Camp Hoover dedicated the Idamae Trenner Pavilion and a sculpture of her.
When Idamae moved to Princeton in 1991 to live closer to her father as well as to one of her sisters, one of her brothers and his growing family, she started a business in money and household management, primarily for senior citizens. Through word-of-mouth, she gained several Princeton-area clients, many of whom became devoted friends. She continued to work, albeit on a reduced scope, until her death.
The greatest source of meaning and connection in her later years was spending time with friends of all ages, perhaps especially with her two nephews, Miles and Winslow Radcliffe-Trenner, who lived literally around the corner. Auntie Ida, Miles, and Win formed early and enduring bonds when she picked them up at Princeton Friends School, took them sledding, skiing, or snowboarding, and spent happy (and sometimes riotous) summer days fishing with them from their boat or from the town dock in Castine, ME. When the boys were older, she thought nothing of driving 300+ miles roundtrip in a single day to be with them for swim meets, water polo games, or musical performances at their high school in Lakeville, CT.
In addition to the Radcliffe-Trenner nephews, Idamae is survived by several other family members, including her siblings, Kathryn T. Trenner of Princeton, Georganna T. Krivonak of Tinicum, PA., Robert F. S. Trenner of Bellevue, WA, and Nelson Richards Trenner Jr. of Princeton, as well as by her nieces and nephews: Kathy Dearborn, Gregory and Daniel Krivonak, Mary K. Benash, and Jake, Katie, and Erik Dearborn. Idamae was predeceased by a niece, Ashley Richards Trenner, and a nephew, Darin Scott Trenner.
A funeral mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 30, at St. Paul’s Church in Princeton. It will be followed by a service at the Trenner Family plot in Princeton Cemetery and then by a private reception. The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home in Princeton is handling the arrangements.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that contributions be made to the Camp Hoover Campership Fund, Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey, 1171 State Route 28, North Branch, NJ 08876.
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George A. Vaughn, III
George A. Vaughn, III, age 96, known to many as “Arky,” died peacefully on April 14 surrounded by family.
Inventor, entrepreneur, aviator, avid traveler, active board member, and singer, Arky had numerous vocations and passions.
Arky was born in East Orange, NJ, to Marion and George A. Vaughn, Jr., a WWI flying ace and co-founder of the Vaughn College of Aeronautics. Raised in Staten Island, NY, he graduated from The Lawrenceville School then enlisted in the US Navy overseas. Following his service, he attended Princeton University and graduated from Ohio State in 1955 with a degree in engineering.
Arky’s career began at ALCOA in New York City, where he also met his future bride, Martha Hinman of Binghamton, NY. In 1965, Arky began working for Mideast Aluminum and moved to Princeton where he and Martha raised their three daughters, Barbara, Susan, and Phoebe. Two years later, with fellow Princeton engineer Dick Hargrave, he founded the Maark Corporation, which designed and manufactured the first aluminum tennis racquets — the Head Master, Standard, and Professional racquets. Arthur Ashe immortalized the Head Graphite racquet, while Pam Shriver helped to popularize a subsequent design for Prince, the first mass-produced oversized racquet. In 1977 AMF acquired Maark, and Arky became the Chairman of Head Racquet Sports Worldwide until the 1985 purchase of AMF by Minstar Corporation.
Arky served on numerous boards: Princeton Day School, Princeton Community Tennis Foundation, the American Boychoir School, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Family Center, Vaughn College of Aeronautics, and the Aerospace Education Foundation.
Singing gave Arky great joy. He and Martha were founders of the Witherspooners, a singing group that performed in Princeton in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and they formed an a cappella group, “The Private Parts,” with friends.
Arky traveled extensively with Martha to exotic destinations across Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Europe as well as Bermuda, where they bought a house in 1978. Bermuda became a beloved second home for them.
Arky is survived by three daughters (and sons-in-law), Barbara Vaughn Hoimes (Telly Hoimes) of New York City and Woodbury, CT, Susan Vaughn (O’Brien) of Los Angeles, and Phoebe Outerbridge (Andrew Outerbridge) of Princeton, NJ, and Bermuda, six grandchildren, a brother James Vaughn, and sister Jane Vaughn Love.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Arky’s honor to HomeFront.
Midway through National Poetry Month, I found a poem Patti Smith sang for Haruki Murakami after presenting him with a literary prize in Berlin 10 years ago. The song ends “And if there’s one thing … Could do for you … You’d be a wing … In heaven blue.” In her memoir M Train (2015), Smith calls Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Knopf 1997) a “devastating” masterpiece that she immediately wanted to reread because she “did not wish to exit its atmosphere.” She was haunted by “the ghost of a phrase” that had to do with “the fate of a certain property” in the opening chapter.
