Summit Local, High School Teacher Dies At Age 95

SUMMIT, NJ — Wanda Gardner Van de Water, who taught at Summit Junior High School and Governor Livingston High School in Berkeley Heights, died on Oct. 30, 2017 at Arbor Glen in Bridgewater from congestive heart failure.

Van de Water was 95 and a resident of Mendham Township for 40 years.

Van de Water was born in Gas City, Indiana, in 1922, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Theodore Gardner and Edith Kizer Gardner. She spent several of her teenage years upstate New York in Alden and Akron, but returned to Brooklyn, where she graduated from James Madison High School. She completed a B.A. at Hunter College in Manhattan.

In 1942 she married John Van de Water, who pre-deceased her in 2008. She joined her husband in California while he served in the Navy during World War II, and afterwards they returned to Brooklyn.

In 1953 they moved to Summit. During the 1950s and 1960s, the family spent many summer weeks on Strong’s Neck in Setauket, Long Island. In 1972 they built a house, designed by her husband, on Corey Lane in Mendham, where she lived until 2013.

From 1963-1965 Van de Water taught at Governor Livingston High School in Berkeley Heights and from 1965-1985 she taught at Summit Junior High School in Summit.

Van de Water read widely and had a deep knowledge of European history. As an Anglophile, she was particularly interested in British history and culture, especially that of Victorian England. Also concerned about current events, she always kept abreast of global and national affairs.

To complement her husband’s extensive garden, she preserved the bountiful harvest he produced for use throughout the year. Over the years, she was active in the College Club of Summit, the Mendham Garden Club and the Brookside Women’s Club.

Van de Water is survived by two children, Paul Van de Water of Alexandria, Virginia, and his wife, Clara Beth, and Martha Van de Water Robinson of Mendham, and two grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and three step-great-grandchildren.

Following cremation by Rowe Lanterman in Morristown, the family will hold a private service at the Community of St. John Baptist in Mendham, followed by interment at Hilltop Cemetery, Mendham.

(Image via Paul Van de Water)

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