Obituaries Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, May 7, 2009

GUILDERLAND — Edward W. Handy, a devoted husband and father, died on May 2, 2009. He was 55.

Mr. Handy was born in Colonie to the late Edward and Emma Handy; he lived in Colonie for all of his life. He worked for Insurance Auto Auction.

An avid motorcyclist, and member of the Albany/Schenectady Harley Owners Group, Mr. Handy took part in many charity rides. He was a NASCAR fan, a stockcar racer, and enjoyed fishing.

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Edward Handy is survived by his wife of almost 30 years, Debbie A. (Landon) Handy; his children, Katherine Handy VanDerlofske and her husband, Matthew, and Joseph Handy; his siblings, Raymond B. Van Epps and his wife, Karen, CarolAnne Lewis and her husband, David, and Judith Lasher; and several nieces and nephews.

Funeral services and interment will be private. Arrangements are by Newcomer-Cannon Funeral Home of Colonie.

Memorial contributions may be made to Community Hospice of Albany, 445 New Karner Road, Albany, NY, 12205.

As a child on Morris Street in Albany, she typed the neighborhood news on sheets of carbon paper, then she and her cousin sold the newspapers for five cents a copy. As an adult, she wrote the Voorheesville news column for The Altamont Enterprise.

Mrs. Hatch died on Monday, April 27, 2009, at the age of 89.

The daughter of the late Irvin S. and Emily Brayden Baker, she was born in Albany, the only child of the assistant manager of Albany Hardware & Iron and a homemaker.

Her first cousin, William Brayden, another only child, lived nearby. They put out the neighborhood newspaper together. “He told us about the pranks they pulled on Halloween and what a creative person she was, thinking up scary things. She was quite a little cut-up, which we never knew,” said her daughter, Barbara Vink.

After graduating from Albany High School, Mrs. Hatch went on to Albany Business College. She worked as a secretary at the First United Methodist Church in Voorheesville and at the Voorheesville Elementary School. “All the teachers loved her,” said her daughter.

She had moved to Voorheesville with her husband, Arthur E. Hatch, in 1954. Mr. Hatch, from a Methodist farm family in Tennessee, came north and met Mrs. Hatch in a youth group at Trinity Methodist Church in Albany. They married in 1945 when he got out of the service.

“He was not a city boy,” said Ms. Vink. “His family had a huge 400-acre farm. He talked the city girl into buying 10 acres in Voorheesville. The things we do for love.”

The couple built a house on Koonz Road and raised their three daughters there. In the 1950s and ‘60s, the mothers in the young families there got together on Tuesdays for coffee and tea and knitting, said Ms. Vink. “The men would joke that they’d sit and kick about their husbands,” she said. So the club was named the Koonz Road Kickers.

Mrs. Hatch was also a member of more traditional community groups. She met with the members of the Beta Sigma Phi sorority from the time she was in her 20s until she went into a nursing home, said her daughter. Mrs. Hatch was also a past president and historian of the American Legion Auxiliary #1493.

And she was a founding member of the Rakowana Archers. “It started on property where the Heldeberg Workshop is now,” said Ms. Vink. “My father was quite good. He taught us all to shoot.”

Mrs. Hatch could handle an embroidery hoop and needle as well as a bow and arrow. A member of the Voorheesville Library Nimblefingers, she could crochet and knit and was a master at counted cross-stitch, her daughter said. Mrs. Hatch cross-stitched seven of Norman Rockwell’s paintings on pieces of linen that are “utterly lovely,” said Ms. Vink. “She gave one to each of the girls; they’re spread all over the country,” she said.

“She’d sit in a chair by the window for hours, doing needlework and watching the cars go by, reporting on the activity,” said Ms. Vink.

As a young woman, Mrs. Hatch also enjoyed painting and wrote detective stories, her daughter said.

As a mother, Ms. Vink said, “She was always our advocate. My father was more old-fashioned. When I was 16 and shaved my legs, he had a fit. She’d intercede. We could always go to her and tell her. She usually prevailed.”

Mrs. Hatch loved being a grandmother, her daughter said, and was on hand to fill in baby-sitting.

Her daughter concluded, “She was always there for us.”

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Marion Hatch is survived by three daughters, Barbara Hatch Vink, and Lauren H. Meacham and her husband, Donald, all of Voorheesville, and Cheryl D. Hatch of Altamont; grandchildren, Lauren Welton, Michael and Joshua Vink, Heather LeVeille, and Courtney Bellouny; great-grandchildren Joshua, Zachary, and Tristan Welton, Ryan and Emily LeVeille, Egan and Bailey Vink, Lilly and Maddix Vink; and cousin, William C. Brayden.

Her husband of 63 years, Arthur E. Hatch, died in 2007.

A memorial service was held Saturday, May 2, at the Mountainview Evangelical Free Church in Voorheesville. Arrangements were by Reilly & Son Funeral Home of Voorheesville.

The family expresses gratitude to the staff at the Albany County Nursing Home for the loving care she received.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Northeast Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, 85 Watervliet Ave., Albany, NY 12206.

“When he was 6 years old, he had his first airplane ride and, from then on, he loved it,” said his wife, Jean Kallop. His mother had taken him to the Rhinebeck airport, near their home in Rhinecliff, she said. He had been born there, on June 12, 1926, the son of Anthony and Viola Kallop.

During his senior year of high school, with the Second World War raging, Mr. Kallop volunteered to join the Army Air Force. He flew for the United States until his honorable discharge, which allowed him to go back to Rhinebeck High School and finish his degree.

“His school principal must have known him pretty well,” Mrs. Kallop said, since he guided her husband toward a career in education.

After meeting his future bride during their first semester of college at Oneonta State University, Mr. Kallop flew with her through the clear blue sky. “He took me for my first airplane ride,” said Mrs. Kallop.

The couple married after graduation and moved to Binghamton, where they each taught in Johnson City. They then moved to Delmar, where Mr. Kallop taught a year in Albany, then Rotterdam, and then spent his career in Voorheesville.

He earned a master’s degree from the University at Albany, during which time a professor urged him to continue his study for a Doctorate in Education, Mrs. Kallop said. After talking it over with her, he decided that it was more important to spend time guiding his young children. The couple raised two girls and a boy.

Mr. Kallop thoroughly enjoyed his time teaching children, as well. He became a language arts supervisor, a remedial reading teacher, and vice principal at Voorheesville Elementary School, his family wrote in a tribute.

“He was a quiet, very unassuming, very smart man,” Mrs. Kallop said.

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Mr. Kallop is survived by his wife of 56 years, Jean Kallop, and his children: Leland Kallop and his wife, Dianne; Laurie Eastlake; and Nancy Bechand and her husband, George. He is also survived by his brother, Donald Kallop, of Rhinebeck, N.Y. His brother, Vernon Kallop, died before him.

A private memorial service will be held by the immediate family at a future date.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Roger L. Kallop Memorial Fund, for library books for the Voorheesville Elementary School. Books for various grade levels will be chosen for the school library and reading rooms in his name with a memorial name plate near the main office in the elementary school.

“He was a kind, gentle educator who enjoyed teaching children and knew the value of learning to read well,” wrote his wife.

The books will be chosen by the school librarian and money handled by the librarian and school principal. Checks should be made payable to the Voorheesville Central School District noting that they are for the Roger Kallop Memorial Fund. They may be sent to the Voorheesville Elementary School, 129 Maple Ave., Voorheesville, NY  12186. 

Luella Kellerman

GUILDERLAND — A life-long teacher — of second-graders in her classroom and of adults learning the fine art of homemaking — Luella Quay Kellerman helped all kinds of people.

“She loved to give to people,” said her daughter, Susan Petrosino. “She was all about making things for people.”

Mrs. Kellerman died on Friday, May 1, 2009, at her daughter’s home in Guilderland after a two-year battle with cancer. She was 65.

She was born in Niskayuna, the daughter of Pauline (Sand) Quay and the late Willis Quay. She grew up in Knox, attending school in the Hilltowns and going to the Knox Reformed Church. She was a graduate of Berne-Knox-Westerlo High School and the State University of New York College at Oneonta.

When her son and her daughter were young, she stayed home to be with them. “She was a great mom,” said her daughter. “She taught us to do the right thing.”

Mrs. Petrosino recalled happily growing up on a Hilltown farm with acres of gardens and fresh maple syrup. Her mother put the vegetables from the gardens to good use. “She canned, froze, and cooked,” said Mrs. Petrosino.

For most of her 25-year teaching career, Mrs. Kellerman taught second grade at the Berne-Knox-Westerlo Central School. She retired in 1998.

“Any kid I’ve ever run across who had her as a teacher was so happy,” said Mrs. Petrosino, recalling how her mother used a hands-on approach, turning her classroom into an ocean or into outer space.

She was always trying new things, both in the classroom and with her crafts. She made baskets and jewelry, and sewed and painted. Her handiwork decorated her home and also served as treasured gifts for friends and family.

She worked at the annual tri-county fair in Altamont for more than three decades — first as an entrant and volunteer and then as the superintendent of the Arts & Crafts building.

“She won a blue ribbon at the State Fair for a wedding dress,” her daughter recalled. People would tell Mrs. Kellerman what they wanted in a dress and she would create it, her daughter said. For the last decade, she also ran a weekend retreat for quilters.

Mrs. Kellerman was a member of the Rotterdam United Methodist Church where she was involved with the music program, mission work, and Sunday school.

She made mission trips to Russia and Mexico, her daughter said. She met her second husband, a minister, through mutual friends and was a pastor’s wife late in life.

She was part of the Dutch Treat Red Hat Society in Guilderland and liked reading and attending shows at Proctor’s Theater. And she also enjoyed spending time at her camp in Broadalbin.

Her main focus in life was her love for her children and grandchildren, her daughter said.

“She was the kind of person who would not let her troubles in life affect her,” Mrs. Petrosino concluded. “She focused on the good stuff.”

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Luella Quay Kellerman is survived by her children, Susan Petrosino and her husband, Joseph, of Guilderland, and Jeffrey Seger and his wife, Kristin, of Broomfield, Colo.; her mother, Pauline Quay, of Altamont; her grandchildren, Jonathan and Rachel Petrosino of Guilderland, and Jacob and Ashley Seger of Broomfield, Colo.; and her brother, Robert Quay, of Altamont.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, May 9, at 11 a.m. at the McKownville United Methodist Church, on Western Avenue, in Guilderland. Arrangements are by the Bond Funeral Home of Schenectady.

Memorial contributions may be made to GYTTE (Give Ye Them To Eat) at the Tree of Life Training Camp (http://www.gytte.org). Please send checks made out to Rotterdam United Methodist Church, to Rotterdam United Methodist Church, 1915 Helderberg Ave., Schenectady, NY  12306.

SCHOHARIE — William Przysiecki of Schoharie Hill Road was a farmer and heavy equipment operator. He died Sunday, April 26 at the Robinson Terrace Nursing Home in Stamford, where he had lived briefly. He was 89.

He was born Aug. 31, 1919, in the town of Guilderland, the son of Roman and Mary Przysiecki. He attended a district school in Knox, as well as Berne-Knox Central School. He helped his family on the family farm, and drove a milk truck for his father.

He was a successful dairy farmer and, for many years, a member of Dairylea and Agway. Mr. Przysiecki later worked as a field manager for Schoharie Valley Farms for a few years, and then began his career with Schoharie County Highway Department, retiring in 1982 as a heavy equipment operator.

He was also a member of the Gallupville United Methodist Church and the Gallupville Grange 893.

He and Ruth Shultes were married on Sept. 6, 1941, and, a year later, they purchased the Chester Zimmer farm and, eventually, the Robert Lawyer Farm, both in Gallupville. The farms were later purchased by their son, Thomas. In the 1970s, the couple purchased a farm on Schoharie Hill, where they had since been residing.

Mr. Przysiecki enjoyed hunting, fishing, and traveling with his camper, his family wrote in a tribute. He and his wife made two cross-country trips, bear hunted in Maine, and joined other seniors on bus trips to many places. He bowled in leagues in Schoharie, Guilderland, and Cobleskill.

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Mr. Przysiecki is survived by his wife, Ruth; his sons: Tom Przysiecki of Gallupville and his wife, Kathy, and Barry Przysiecki of Schoharie and his wife, Sharon; his daughter, Judy St. Hedley of Albany; his grandson, Daniel Przysiecki of Gallupville; his granddaughters: Ginelle Przysiecki of Gallupville, Megan Odom of Italy, Erin Przysiecki of Scotia, Amanda Przysiecki of California, Stacy Przysiecki of Schoharie, Rachel Strilec and Sandra Strilec, both of Albany; his great-grandchildren in Italy; and several nieces and nephews.

His brother Roman died before him, as did his sisters, Mary, Helen, and Julie; step-brothers, Joe, Steve, and Bill Shedina; and step-sister Mary Cienciva.

He leaves several beloved relatives in the Knox area.

A funeral service was held on April 29 at the Langan Funeral Home in Schoharie. Burial followed in the Gallupville Rural Cemetery.

Richard “Dick” L. Van Iderstine

EAST BERNE — Richard Leslie Van Iderstine Jr., a family man who drove a bulldozer, coached Little League, and rode horses, died on Wednesday, April 29, 2009, after battling lung cancer. He was surrounded by his family. He was 64.

Mr. Van Iderstine was born on Sept. 4, 1946 in Albany, in Brady Maternity to the late Richard and Bernice (Hotaling) Van Iderstine.

He attended Berne-Knox-Westerlo Central Schools. He coached the East Berne Indians Little League team for many years and later became president. He enjoyed his years in the horse world as the president of the Hayburners Riding Club in South Berne.

Mr. Van Iderstine was a member of the Operating Engineers Union Local # 106. “He retired from James H. Malloy as our ace bulldozer operator,” his family wrote in a tribute. “He loved providing entertainment with his Malloy buddies, Rich, Pat, and Kevin. His quick wit and unique sense of humor remained strong, providing our family with the strength to let him go. He enjoyed his grandchildren and helping friends.”

Mr. Van Iderstine is survived by his loving wife of 43 years, Linda (Hildenbrandt) Van Iderstine; his sons, Richard Van Iderstine III and his wife, Lisa, and Jeffrey Van Iderstine and his wife, Tina; and his daughter, Liddy; his grandchildren, Richard IV, Samantha, Stephanie, and Megan.

He is also survived by three brothers, Gary Van Iderstine and his wife, Tanya, Roger Van Iderstine and Wilfred Van Iderstine and his wife, Renee; and two sister, Rise and Sharon and her husband, Paul; his special cousins Henry and Donata Klersy, his brother and sister-in-law Robert and Joan Burgess and their children, Christopher, Nicholas and goddaughter Melissa (Tilly); also his goddaughter Gillian Gaylord.

His parents died before him as did his brother, Darrin and sister, Denise Irizarry-Barkley.

The family would like to express their thanks to  Dr. David Shaffer, Dr. Susan Gibbons, the entire staff of New York Oncology Hematology, Radiation Oncology, the great staff on D4E, and our extended family on E8 of Albany Medical Center, and the infusion department at Memorial Hospital, and the assistance from St. Peter’s Hospice. Also, the Helderberg Rescue Squad for all its help. a special thank-you also to the Clayton family for all their help and support.

A funeral service was held on Sunday, May3 at the Cunningham Funeral Home, in Greenville.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Dormansville United Methodist Church, the Helderberg Rescue Squad, or the American Lung Association.

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