Emily (“Elva”) Langford Bennett died peacefully Wednesday January 22nd at her home at St. Mary’s Assisted Living in Lawrenceville, NJ, at age 93.
The daughter of the late Francis Daly and Vera Sweeney, Emily was born and raised in St. Paul Minnesota and attended St. John’s School and Hamline University. She worked for US Armed Forces Radio Service in Vienna after WWII and studied opera with renowned Austrian opera singers Fritz and Louisa Krenn. Following her marriage to fellow American Frank Bennett, the couple returned to the United States while Frank completed his studies at MIT. They eventually settled in Lawrenceville in order for Frank to take a position as Director of Engineering at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. In addition to raising three children, Emily worked as an Administrative Assistant for the Princeton University Alumni Council for almost 25 years.
Following her University retirement, she worked as private secretary to emeritus physics professor John Archibald Wheeler, who acknowledged her assistance in his autobiography Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics.
A lifelong bibliophile she was a member of the Bronte Society, the St. Andrew Society, the English Speaking Union, and the Princeton Folk Music Society.
Emily loved to travel and thought nothing of jumping into the car with one or more family members for long, cross-country drives (camping along the way) to visit friends, family, places, or events anywhere in North America. She howled with wolves on Isle Royale, Michigan, watched polar bears in Churchill Manitoba, and hiked in Pangnirtung, Nunavit Territory. (She conceded the use of an airplane to reach places that did not have roads.)
A devoted mother and grandmother, she had a charm and positive energy that brightened the day of all who met her.
Preceded in death by her former husband and her son Dale James Bennett, she is survived by her daughter Nancy Bennett and grandchildren Neil and Ivor Havkin of West Windsor and daughter Emily Jane Bennett and grandchildren Sarah, Patrick, and Kathleen Neff of Golden, CO.
A funeral mass is scheduled at the chapel at St. Mary’s Assisted Living, 1 Bishops Drive, Lawrenceville, NJ at 2 pm Saturday January 28th. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Pet Rescue of Mercer, PO Box 2574, Hamilton NJ, 08690 petrescueofmercer.org.
