Joseph E. Irenas

Joseph Eron Irenas, Senior United States District Judge, died on Friday, October 16, 2015, at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, surrounded by his family.

At the age of 75, Judge Irenas was working five days a week, despite having taken senior status in 2002, and undergoing hemodialysis treatment three times a week. He was presiding over a jury trial when he suffered a fall at the Camden courthouse, which ultimately led to his death.

Born July 13, 1940, in Newark, New Jersey to Zachary and Bess Irenas, Judge Irenas and his younger sister Diana Schoenblum, were raised in Elizabeth. It was there, in 1951, on the first day of the sixth grade, that Judge Irenas met his wife Nancy (nee Jacknow).

Judge Irenas was a proud alumnus of the Pingry School, graduating in 1958. In 2009, the school awarded him their highest alumni honor, the Letter-In-Life Award. In his acceptance speech, he advised graduating students: respect all people, behave ethically, be grateful for the support of your family, and tip restaurant servers well.

After Pingry, the Judge attended Princeton University, meeting many life-long friends there. He graduated from Princeton in 1962. At his Class’s 50^th Reunion, he was awarded the Lifetime Class Service Award for going “above and beyond the call of duty” in contributions to his class.

In the summer of his junior year at Princeton, and perhaps foreshadowing the Judge’s future as a government servant, the Judge spent the summer in Alaska tagging salmon for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Once, when asked to describe one of the hardest things he had ever done, the Judge responded, “digging a hole in the permafrost to serve as an outhouse.”

Upon graduating cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1965, Judge Irenas clerked for the Honorable Justice Haydn Proctor of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

He then began a very prolific and successful private practice at McCarter & English, LLP. Described by the firm as a “genuine renaissance lawyer,” Judge Irenas received recognitions as both a litigator and a transactional attorney, and served as one of the firm’s managing partners. His reputation at the firm was “legendary;” “he was feared by some, loved by many, and respected by all.”

Also during the Judge’s time in private practice, he was appointed by the Supreme Court of New Jersey to serve as a bar examiner.

In November, 1991, the Judge was nominated by President George H.W. Bush to fill a newly created district court seat in the District of New Jersey, Camden Vicinage. He took the bench in April, 1992.

In the early days, the Judge worked 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., notwithstanding his commute to and from Princeton, where he lived. In addition, he taught Professional Responsibility, First Amendment, and Products Liability law as an adjunct professor at Rutgers-Camden Law School.

In 2002, the Rutgers Law Journal dedicated their Volume 34, Number 1 to the Judge. The following year, he was awarded the Judge John F. Gerry Award by the Camden County Bar Association, in recognition of his “spirit and humanitarianism.” In 2005, he was awarded the William J. Brennan, Jr. Award from the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey which “honors those whose actions have advanced the principles of free expression.”

In later years, Judge Irenas often sat by designation on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and had organized the Camden Courthouse’s Professionalism Day program for the past three years. He participated in a panel discussion for this program the afternoon before his fatal accident.

When the Judge was asked during his Senate confirmation hearing “what particular contribution” he hoped to make to the judiciary, he answered, “I would … like to make some contribution in the area of case management, docket control, and the moving of cases.” As his colleagues on the bench, members of the bar, and his law clerks — past and present — can attest, he was resoundingly successful in that regard, frequently volunteering to take complex cases and maintaining a nearly full docket of civil and criminal cases, even in the face of formidable health challenges. After taking senior status, he was fond of saying that he was “working for free,” in light of the fact that, due to life tenure protected by the U.S. Constitution, the Judge would be paid whether or not he reported to work.

Former Chief Judge of the Third Circuit, Edward R. Becker, once described the Judge as “a man of incandescent brilliance.” Indeed, the Judge’s intellect was undeniable by all who encountered him.

In addition to his numerous intellectual accomplishments, Judge Irenas had deep compassion for those in need. He recently retired from the Board of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Mercer County, where he served as a trustee for many years. He was the first recipient of the NAMI pillar award in 2012 for his significant contributions to the organization. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of Cathedral Kitchen, a soup kitchen located in Camden. At the holidays, rather than exchanging gifts, the Judge and his staff pooled their money to make a donation to Cathedral Kitchen. The Judge would then personally deliver the check.

To his law clerks, he was an incomparable teacher and mentor. To his countless friends and poker buddies, he was a trusted confidante with a mischievous sense of humor. To his children, Amy and Ted and son-in-law Bob; and to his grandchildren Joe, Patrick, Charlie, Jenna, Shayne, and Zoey, he was a wise advisor and unwavering supporter. To his sister, Diana, he was simply “the best big brother and friend” one could ever have. To his wife of 53 years, Nancy, he was a partner, soul mate, and the love of her life.

A private funeral was held in Princeton. A public memorial will be held in the coming weeks.

Donations in memory of Judge Irenas may be sent to:

NAMI Mercer NJ, 3371 Brunswick Pike, Suite 124, Lawrenceville, New Jersey 08648

(online at www.namimercer.org/support/donationopportunities.shtml)

or Cathedral Kitchen, 1514 Federal Street, Camden, New Jersey 08105

(online at http://cathedralkitchen.org/get_involved/commemorations_and_tribute/).

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Elizabeth Speagle

Elizabeth “Betsy” Speagle of Princeton passed away on October 10, 2015. She was born on December 26, 1926 in Cambridge, Mass., daughter of Albert and Alice Edson. She attended the Brimmer and May School in Boston and Mount Holyoke College. She moved to Princeton in 1948 and met her future husband, Richard Speagle, who has predeceased her. Betsy was a longtime resident of Snowden Lane in Princeton. She is survived by her children, Emily of Concord, Mass.; Holly (Steven Dunning) of Albuquerque, N. Mex.; and Robert (Cynthia Nelson) of Lawrenceville; grandchildren, Sarah Bates (Steve Bates) and Alex Dunning; and great-grandchild, Katie Bates.

Betsy was a teacher and director at Cross Roads Nursery School for many years. She touched many lives and was known for sharing nature with children, sourcing frog eggs for observation of the life cycle from tadpole in the aquarium to release to the ponds. She was a great cook and known for the wonderful Christmas cookies that she shared with many. Betsy was loved and will be missed. Betsy’s family especially thanks the staff at Acorn Glen Assisted Living for the wonderful and loving care they provided and to Willie Rosso, her mechanic.

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Charles Coulston Gillispie

Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on August 6, 1918, Charles Coulston Gillispie, the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History and professor emeritus of the history of science at Princeton University, was the son of Robert L Gillispie and Virginia L. Coulston.

He grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was a member of the class of 1935 at the South Kent School in South Kent, Connecticut, and graduated from Wesleyan University in 1940 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. After graduation, he remained at Wesleyan for his master’s degree in history. From 1942 until 1946, Gillispie served with the Third Army in Europe in a heavy mortar battalion, reaching the rank of captain. Following the war, he returned to the study of history, joining Princeton University’s faculty in 1947 and earning a PhD in history from Harvard University in 1949.

He married Emily Ramsdell Clapp in 1949, whom he met in the summer of 1938 when they were members of a student group that travelled to Britain and the Continent under the auspices of the Experiment in International Living. He is predeceased by his beloved wife and helpmate of 64 years, and by his younger brother, Robert L., Jr.

Gillispie was a leading figure in the establishment of the history and philosophy of science as an academic discipline, having founded the Program in History of Science at Princeton in the 1960s. He is the author of many books that have become classics in the field, including Genesis and Geology: A Study in the Relations of Scientific Thought, Natural Theology, and Social Opinion in Great Britain, 1790-1850; The Edge of Objectivity: An Essay in the History of Scientific Ideas; and Pierre-Simon Laplace, 1749-1827: A Life in Exact Science. He was also the editor-in-chief of the Dictionary of Scientific Biography, a monumental reference work in 16 volumes with more than 4,500 essays on scientists and mathematicians of all periods and nationalities, for which he received the Dartmouth Medal from the American Library Association in 1981. His final work, Lazare and Sadi Carnot: A Scientific and Filial Relationship, a book of over 500 pages co-authored with Raffaele Pisano, was published last year.

Gillispie’s many awards and distinctions include the 1997 Balzan Prize for History and Philosophy of Science for “the extraordinary contribution he has made to the history and philosophy of science by his intellectually vigorous and exacting works.” Gillispie received the Pfizer Prize in 1981 from the History of Science Society for his book, Science and Polity in France at the End of the Old Regime, and the Sarton Medal in 1984. Among his other awards are the Dibner Award for Distinction in History of Science and Technology from MIT in 1994 and la Médialle Alexandre Koyré from the Académie Internationale d’Histoire des Sciences in 1985. In 1972, he was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society, America’s oldest learned society. He received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Wesleyan University in 1971, from Lafayette College in 2001, and a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Princeton University in 2011.

Gillispie was founding adviser for Princeton’s Sachs Scholarship, one of the University’s most prestigious fellowships awarded to two graduating seniors: one for two years of study at Oxford University’s Worcester College, and the second for one year of study or travel abroad on a program of the student’s own design.

Arrangements are under the direction of The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.

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Robert Clayton Burns

Robert Clayton Burns died Friday, October 16, 2015 at Meadow Lakes in Hightstown, New Jersey. He was 98. A fortunate man, the elements of his life were mainly of his own choosing: family; making, teaching, and writing about art; a broad array of projects, contributions to his community; and always, the pursuit of a good game of tennis.

Robert was born in LaGrange Illinois in 1916 to Harvey and May Pratt Burns. The family later moved to Maplewood, New Jersey where he and his older brother Gordon spent most of their childhoods. There Robert discovered an aptitude for and pleasure in drawing and painting, and the resource of his vivid imagination. He studied painting in Van Deering Perrine’s Children’s Laboratory Group. Perrine’s passionate commitment to the work and to the ideal of fostering each student’s individual vision rather than teaching a particular method made a lasting impact on Robert. In some contrast, later art training provided thorough grounding in the traditions and craft of painting. He graduated from Yale Art School in 1939 and accepted a job teaching art at Rollins College, in Winter Park, Florida. There he met Amie Goodwin and fell in love. They married in the summer of 1941; within months Robert was drafted and the country was at war.

Robert’s service during the war employed and enriched his skills. He made murals, charts, posters, manuals, film slides, newspaper art and maps, and analyzed aerial photos. His paintings had begun to be recognized before the war with first prizes in competitions in New York, New Jersey, and Florida, and Honorable Mentions in Prix de Rome competitions of 1937 and 1939. During the war, in 1942 his oil painting, “Troop Movements” won first prize in the Life Magazine Competition for Service Men.

The war’s end allowed a return to family life, now with two children, and the exertions of a working artist. Freelance work: book illustration, portraits, murals … the illustration of one Classic Comic, “Twenty Years After” (Dumas) … evolved into steady employment in advertising in New York and finally into a doctoral degree and 25 year teaching career at Trenton State College, near Trenton, New Jersey. Within the college he flourished and contributed; taught studio, and art history; designed the college seal and mace; served on committees, and as chairperson of the art department; completed a detailed study of a designed approach to college scheduling; designed sets for many plays; wrote and spoke out energetically during the tumultuous 1968-69 years; and led student art-study trips to Europe. Beyond the college, he continued his by then normal breadth of work, completing portraits, mural and illustration projects. He also designed and built family homes, provided courtroom sketches for the infamous Addonizio Trial of 1970, completed art restoration projects, and whenever possible … played tennis.

He felt privileged to have been an artist. Yet his idea of art was workman-like not pure, and included all sorts of efforts to make sense of our world and to make it more beautiful and functional. It was an ideal based on intellect and analysis as much as on subjective vision, and it was an ideal envisioned as service.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Amie (Frances Euamy) Goodwin Burns; brother Gordon Kendrick Burns; sister-in-law Rose Irene Moore; brothers-in-law John Lemuel Goodwin, Lawrence Goodwin, Herman Goodwin Jr., and Kingman Colquitt Moore.

Surviving are daughter Sandy Burns; son Carl Burns; granddaughters Erin Winton Burns and Kelsey Scott Burns; sister-in-law Dorothy Ruestow Burns and her children’s’ families; and sister-in-law Mary Jo Miner Goodwin and her children’s’ families.