Jane Spencer Hand Bonthron, 96, died in Princeton, New Jersey, on December 15th, 2018. Born in Cape May, NJ, in 1922, she grew up in Cape May and Jenkintown, PA. She graduated from Swarthmore College as an English major in 1943 and joined the Navy that same year. She was a Lieutenant Junior Grade stationed at Naval Supply Depot Mechanicsburg, PA, where she worked in Communications as a coder/decoder on the Enigma machine. There she met her future husband, the well-known Princeton miler Lt. William Robert Bonthron (d. 1983), a Naval Supply Officer recently returned from a lengthy tour in Oran, Algeria. They were married in 1946, lived briefly in Williamsville, NY, and moved to Princeton, where they raised four children: Jennifer Bonthron Waters, of Easton, MD; Susan Jane Bonthron of Guilford, VT; William Deas Bonthron of Hopewell, NJ (d. 2016); and Thomas Spencer Bonthron of Pittsburgh, PA (d. 2009). She was also a beloved stepmother to William Bonthron's son William James Bonthron of Ottawa, Ontario (d. 2002), and daughter Katherine Katama Bonthron of Munich, Germany (d. 2014), and aunt of Jill Arace of Waitsfield, VT.
Jane enjoyed bridge and golf and was a longtime volunteer with the Princeton Hospital Aid Society and Meals on Wheels. She is survived by her two daughters; four grandchildren, Beatrice Waters Kalinich, Robert Knight Waters, Caitlin Bonthron Roper, and Anna Jane Ruff; three step-granddaughters, Alexandra and Fiona Bonthron and Catriona Gannon; and great-grandchildren, Emily and Helen Kalinich and Wyatt and June Kroyer. Her life will be celebrated at a private gathering in Cape May, NJ, in the late spring.
Jane enjoyed bridge and golf and was a longtime volunteer with the Princeton Hospital Aid Society and Meals on Wheels. She is survived by her two daughters; four grandchildren, Beatrice Waters Kalinich, Robert Knight Waters, Caitlin Bonthron Roper, and Anna Jane Ruff; three step-granddaughters, Alexandra and Fiona Bonthron and Catriona Gannon; and great-grandchildren, Emily and Helen Kalinich and Wyatt and June Kroyer. Her life will be celebrated at a private gathering in Cape May, NJ, in the late spring.
Jane Spencer Hand Bonthron, 96, died in Princeton, New Jersey, on December 15th, 2018. Born in Cape May, NJ, in 1922, she grew up in Cape May and Jenkintown, PA. She graduated from Swarthmore College as an English major in 1943 and joined the Navy that same year. She was a Lieutenant Junior Grade stationed at Naval Supply Depot Mechanicsburg, PA, where she worked in Communications as a coder/decoder on the Enigma machine. There she met her future husband, the well-known Princeton miler Lt. William Robert Bonthron (d. 1983), a Naval Supply Officer recently returned from a lengthy tour in Oran, Algeria. They were married in 1946, lived briefly in Williamsville, NY, and moved to Princeton, where they raised four children: Jennifer Bonthron Waters, of Easton, MD; Susan Jane Bonthron of Guilford, VT; William Deas Bonthron of Hopewell, NJ (d. 2016); and Thomas Spencer Bonthron of Pittsburgh, PA (d. 2009). She was also a beloved stepmother to William Bonthron's son William James Bonthron of Ottawa, Ontario (d. 2002), and daughter Katherine Katama Bonthron of Munich, Germany (d. 2014), and aunt of Jill Arace of Waitsfield, VT.
Jane enjoyed bridge and golf and was a longtime volunteer with the Princeton Hospital Aid Society and Meals on Wheels. She is survived by her two daughters; four grandchildren, Beatrice Waters Kalinich, Robert Knight Waters, Caitlin Bonthron Roper, and Anna Jane Ruff; three step-granddaughters, Alexandra and Fiona Bonthron and Catriona Gannon; and great-grandchildren, Emily and Helen Kalinich and Wyatt and June Kroyer. Her life will be celebrated at a private gathering in Cape May, NJ, in the late spring.
Jane enjoyed bridge and golf and was a longtime volunteer with the Princeton Hospital Aid Society and Meals on Wheels. She is survived by her two daughters; four grandchildren, Beatrice Waters Kalinich, Robert Knight Waters, Caitlin Bonthron Roper, and Anna Jane Ruff; three step-granddaughters, Alexandra and Fiona Bonthron and Catriona Gannon; and great-grandchildren, Emily and Helen Kalinich and Wyatt and June Kroyer. Her life will be celebrated at a private gathering in Cape May, NJ, in the late spring.
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