Obituary of Hilda Gander

Hilda "Hildy" Gander, a long time resident of Whitehouse, New Jersey, passed away March 18, 2015 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Wayne, NJ. She was 89 and had been a resident at Cedar Crest Senior Living in Pompton Plains, NJ for the last few years. She was born Brunhilde Wilhemina Woetzel on March 30, 1925 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She married Robert Gander on June 19, 1948 in Midland Park, NJ, and they had been married 59 years when Robert died February 9, 2008. At the time of her marriage she retired from her position as secretary to the Director of Research at the Firestone Plastics Co. in Potterstown, PA. She graduated from Pompton Lakes High School and Ridgewood Secretarial School, and later took courses at Raritan Valley Community College. She was the senior active member of the Community Garden Club of Hunterdon County, where she had been a member for 60 years, a Life Member of the Garden Club of New Jersey and of the National Council of State Garden Clubs, and a founding member of SONG (Supporter of the National Garden), the national fund for the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., where she and her husband visited ninety-five times, a favorite stop being the National Gallery. She had been a long-time member of the Whitehouse United Methodist Church, a Sunday School teacher, and in 1985 instituted the tradition of honoring those who had been members 50 years or more. She was also a member of the Theodore Roosevelt Association and the Smithsonian Institution. She is survived by her brother Kurt Woetzel, 87, of Pompton Plains; two sons, Mark Robert Gander and wife Renee of Topanga, California, and Malcolm Johns Gander and wife Melanie of Bainbridge Island, Washington; and two grandchildren, two step-grandchildren and six step-great-grandchildren. Burial will be in Eagle River, Wisconsin, her late husband's home town where he is buried and where the family visited many times. Memorial donations may be made to the Whitehouse United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 190, Whitehouse, NJ 08888 or to the Community Garden Club of Hunterdon County Scholarship Fund, 84 Cole Road, Whitehouse Station, NJ 08889.