Milestones April 2015

Deaths

Atlee—Susan Neuhauser Atlee, 83, on September 16, 2014. Sue was born on October 11, in Lancaster, Pa., to Miriam and Homer Neuhauser. Raised in the Methodist church, she attended her first meeting (State College, Pa.), when she met her future husband, Charles Biddle Atlee. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education in 1952 and joined Chuck in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, where he was serving at an American Friends Service Committee workcamp. He proposed to her on her birthday that year, and they married in December at the Bird in Hand Methodist church in Lancaster. Five days after the wedding, they moved to Pasadena, Calif., where she worked at Pacific Oaks Friends School, he worked in a plant nursery in Monrovia, Calif., and they attended Orange Grove Meeting.

Moving to Santa Barbara, Calif., two years later, where she worked in a YMCA girls’ program, they helped to start Santa Barbara Meeting. Continuing north to Santa Cruz, Calif., Chuck worked with the UC Agriculture Extension Service, and they helped to start Santa Cruz Meeting. They bought a house with six acres and moved into the old carriage house, and Sue, pregnant with their first child, stayed home to fix up the old house. Along the way she earned a master’s in counseling, and they moved to Davis, Calif., for Chuck to get his master’s degree. They helped to start Davis Meeting, serving on the original Ben Lomond Quaker Center Committee and working there on weekends. The family spent four years in Guatemala, where Chuck worked with USAID. Back in the states, they moved to San Luis Obispo, Calif., and she taught at Arroyo Grande High School for 18 years. They started a Friends worship group that met at California Polytechnic State University’s Catholic student center, sometimes the only attenders being Sue, Chuck, and Anna and Will Alexander. Santa Cruz Meeting took the group under its care as Central Coast Preparative Meeting, and when it became a meeting, Sue and Chuck transferred their memberships. She served on the First-day School and Peace and Social Concerns committees, distributing military alternatives packets to all the county high schools and keeping the meeting informed about other Quaker organizations’ activism.

High energy and loving, she supported others in their committee work, and when someone needed help, she was right there to help or arrange the help. She coordinated the homeless dinner every other month, often making several dishes herself, and hosted meetings for worship and committee meetings. She loved to play the piano and sing and enjoyed the monthly First Day singing. She and Chuck rode with a bike club and often biked to meeting; she rode her bike to meeting two days before she died. Friends miss her very much. She is survived by her husband, Charles Atlee; two children, Robert Atlee and Barbara Atlee; two brothers, Robert Neuhauser and James Neuhauser; and four grandchildren.

Çambel—Ali Bulent Çambel, 91, on October 7, 2014, at home in McLean, Va., with two grandsons by his side. Ali was born on April 9, 1923, in Merano, Italy, to Turkish parents Ayse Remziye and Hasan Çemil Çambel. His maternal grandfather was Ibrahim Hakki Pasa, the 274th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. His father had been Ataturk’s advisor and associate and Turkish military and cultural attaché to Germany during World War I. His liberal, secular, and activist parents (his father helped to resettle hundreds of Jewish families in Turkey before and during World War II) raised him to take on challenges on their merit rather than to look for public recognition.

He received a bachelor’s in exact science (with honors) from Robert College in Istanbul at 19. Coming to the United States in 1943 on a science scholarship, he received a master’s in mechanical engineering from California Institute of Technology in 1946. That year he married Marion Volpe-Serra DePaar, who was a Quaker working for the American Friends Service Committee in Mexico. While studying for a doctorate in mechanical engineering from University of Iowa that he received in 1950, he helped to start Iowa City Meeting. He and Marion joined Evanston (Ill.) Meeting in 1953, with their children becoming associate members. At Evanston Meeting he served on the Peace and Service and Education Fund committees. He was both gentle and spirited, and he encouraged his children to be open-minded and stand up for what was right. Early on, they participated in nuclear disarmament and racial integration events.

A dedicated scholar and professor, he taught mechanical engineering and dynamics of gaseous materials at Northwestern University, where he became a Walter P. Murphy Distinguished Professor. He advised the U.S. government on energy projects and served as vice president for research for the Institute for Defense Analysis, working to give back to his adopted country and trying to influence national policy for the better. He returned to academia at Wayne State University as dean of engineering and applied sciences and as executive vice president for academic affairs, and he rounded out his career as deputy assistant director of the National Science Foundation and professor of applied sciences at George Washington University. He was a guiding star in science and public policy, writing 19 books and scores of scientific papers on topics ranging from plasma physics to chaos theory. In Virginia he attended several different meetings, toward the end of his life cherishing meetings for worship at home with Friends from Langley Hill Meeting in McLean, Va.

He loved sailing, tinkering with new technology, spending time with friends and family, and continuing to learn. He welcomed myriad people of all ages into his home, enjoying stimulating conversations on a wide range of topics and delighting in challenging assumptions. Generous with those he loved, he was always humble, caring, open, and kind, inspiring his family, students, colleagues, and long-time friends, and being inspired by them. Ali was predeceased by his wife, Marion DePaar Çambel, in 1997; and his son, Metin Çambel, in 1999. He is survived by three daughters, Emel Çambel, Leyla Çambel, and Sarah Summers; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Doms—Margaret Taylor Doms, 94, on November 3, 2014, in her sleep, at home in Foxdale Village, State College, Pa. Peg was born on August 5, 1920, in Bluffton, Ind., to Emma Hickman and Albert Hoyt Taylor. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and graduated with a bachelor’s in American institutions and one in library science from University of Wisconsin–Madison. While there, she met fellow student Keith Doms, whom she married in 1944. Living in Concord, N.H., where Keith began his career, she organized a Welcome Wagon program emphasizing community life. They raised their two sons in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pa., where she volunteered many hours, starting interracial dialog groups in Pittsburgh, explaining about the natural world to school children at Schuylkill Valley Nature Center in Philadelphia, and teaching English as a second language for visiting Chinese scholars in Philadelphia.

In addition to teaching, Peg and Keith provided a home for several scholars for about five years and introduced them to life in the United States with activities and travel. She used her familiarity with Chinese language and culture to lead a delegation of American librarians for a six-week tour of China and other Asian countries. Once her sons were in college, she worked as a law librarian for several years, leading a Greater Philadelphia Law Library Association committee to establish a consultancy for improving law library services.

Throughout the years, Peg shared her love of gardening and birding and studied natural history. One of her favorite places was Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Kempton, Pa. After moving to Foxdale Village, she joined State College Meeting, serving on the meeting’s Care and Concern Committee and as co-chair of the Telephone Tree. She enthusiastically engaged with the Foxdale community, interviewing many Quakers and Foxdale residents as a member of the Oral History Project. In her last years she continued to enjoy meals with her friends, walks with a companion (outdoors in good weather), and meeting for worship at Foxdale Village. Peg joined Friends late in life, but you would think she had been a Quaker long before, as her interests and activities had paralleled those of Friends throughout her life. She was preceded in death by her loving husband of 65 years, Keith Doms. She is survived by two sons, Peter Doms (and family) and David Doms (and family).

Erb—Alice Robinson Erb, 100, on August 18, 2014, at Kendal-at-Longwood PA. Alice was one of twins born on August 7, 1914, in Wyoming County, Pa., to Caroline H. and Louis N. Robinson of Swarthmore (Pa.) Meeting. Her father taught at Swarthmore College, and her mother’s family had been Quakers since the time of George Fox. After attending Swarthmore College, she graduated from Stanford University and University of Pennsylvania medical school. In 1939 she married fellow medical student Howard R. Erb, and while he was in England in World War II, she practiced gynecology in Philadelphia, Pa. She spent the next three years in Rochester, Minn., where Howard was a neurosurgical fellow at the Mayo Clinic. They settled in Allentown, Pa., and joined Lehigh Valley Meeting in Bethlehem, Pa. Alice found lifelong friends and spiritual support from the meeting. The youngest of their four children was just a year old when Howard died of a heart attack.

Alice served as clerk of meeting, board member of the American Friends Service Committee, Girl Scout council treasurer and troop leader, George School Committee member, and board member of Allentown Planned Parenthood—always knitting during committee meetings. She was also a founder of the Allentown League of Women Voters. She loved watching wildlife, sewing, reading, gardening, kayaking in a boat she named Granny’s Folly, and playing Go Fish with her grandchildren. She traveled widely—driving her teenage daughters and niece around France and Italy and venturing to Antarctica with a son-in-law. She taught her children to accelerate out of a curve when driving, to make hospital corners when bedmaking, and to even off a cake and brownies—but most important, to be kind and brave. For over 30 years she lived at Kendal-at-Longwood, Pa., where she celebrated her 100th birthday 11 days before her death. Kendal Meeting, where she was a member, held her memorial service. She leaves four children, Molly E. Adams, Christine Erb, Hannah E. Tolles, and Jonathan H. Erb; seven grandchildren; and one great-grandson.

Flagg—Richard Welford Flagg, 91, on November 20, 2013, in Tucson, Ariz. Richard was born on June 4, 1922, in Providence, R.I., the middle child of Quakers Mary Harkness White and Arthur Leonard Flagg, who founded the Mineralogical Society of Arizona. The family moved to Maricopa County in Arizona, where his father worked as a mining engineer and a collector of minerals, passing enthusiasm and expertise in this field of study on to Richard. He graduated in 1945 from University of Arizona College of Mines and worked as a minerals processing metallurgist for many years. He married Marjorie Ann Wyman and entered Civilian Public Service in 1945, working for several months at an American Friends Service Committee camp. In 1978, he suffered severe burns from flaming jet fuel when a U.S. Air Force jet crashed in mid-town Tucson, killing two students. He spent three months in the hospital recovering and experienced pain long after.

In 1987, he transferred his membership from Providence (R.I) Meeting to Pima Meeting in Tucson. Friends remember his practical, competent nature and his work maintaining the building and grounds of the meetinghouse. Richard, like his father, had an extensive and distinguished career as a metallurgist and was named to the Legion of Honor of the Society of Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration. He assisted for years with the famed Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, where he worked with the collections and maintained and sometimes redesigned the display cases.

A Friend from Illinois who visited Pima Meeting in September 2014 told of being assigned as Richard’s roommate when the two were freshmen at University of Arizona more than 70 years earlier. This visitor found Richard’s Quaker presence and pacifist position compelling, and their friendship over the years had inspired him to become a Quaker too, and to raise a Quaker family. Richard was survived by his wife of 68 years, Marjorie Ann Wyman Flagg, until her death on October 15, 2014, and is survived by their children, Barbara Moos (Stephen) and Carolyn Kerr (William); a granddaughter; and a sister, Anne Hines (Lenard).

Hartzler—Wilton Emerson Hartzler, 94, on December 11, 2014, at Friends Homes at Guilford, Greensboro, N.C. Wil was born on March 24, 1920, in Topeka, Ind., to Nora Burkholder and Raymond L. Hartzler. He graduated from Carlock High School in 1938 and from Bluffton College with a degree in sociology in 1942. After marrying Rosemary Krogh in 1943, he served five years in Civilian Public Service and graduated from University of Chicago Divinity School in 1948 with a master’s in religious education, He worked in Seattle with the Campus YMCA at University of Washington until 1951. After that he held both regional and national positions with the American Friends Service Committee, including as executive secretary of the southeastern region in High Point, N.C. The North Carolina Council of Churches honored him as Citizen of the Year in 1979. After 1980, he worked for Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, D.C., until he retired in 1985. Then he provided free basic tax returns for low-income individuals and families through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program.

Wil was a man of quiet faith, deeply committed to peace and racial justice. Although he was not a member of any meeting when he died, he had been a member of Springfield Meeting in High Point, N.C., and Northern Virginia Mennonite Church, and he was a founding member of Greensboro Mennonite Fellowship. He served in leadership roles on many committees with these and other organizations. He enjoyed gardening and reading and being with his family, and he and Rosemary maintained close connections with friends they had made throughout their lives. Nearly all their vacations were road trips to visit scattered friends and family. Admired and loved by all who knew him, he was kind, loving, gentle, and peaceful, with a delightful chuckle.

Wil is survived by his devoted wife of nearly 71 years, Rosemary Krogh Hartzler; three children, Mary Lou Hartzler, Ronald Hartzler, and Holly Hartzler Jones; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren, with an eighth to be born in the spring. His family expresses their great appreciation for the compassionate and exceptional care he received during his three years at the Friends Homes at Guilford Whittier Nursing Center. Memorial contributions may be made to the Residents Assistance Fund for Friends Homes at Guilford, 925 New Garden Road, Greensboro, NC 27410 or Greensboro Mennonite Fellowship, 501 S. Mendenhall St., Greensboro, NC 27403.

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