Obituary of Barbara P. Marder

Barbara P. Marder of State College died August 14, 2016. Born December 18, 1935 in Jersey City, NJ, she was the daughter of the late Julius and Pearl W. Perlmutter of Toms River, NJ and Pembroke Pines, FL. Barbara grew up in Lakewood, NJ and had a happy childhood made memorable by her loving parents, two brothers, cousins and other family and friends. She graduated from Lakewood High School and went to Trenton State University where she graduated with a degree in elementary education. On June 17, 1956, she married the late Martin Marder. After marriage she began graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania but moved away before she could graduate. They then moved to Virginia and Maryland where their two children, Susanne and David, were born. In 1965, the family moved to State College and Barbara once again began graduate school. She received a M.Ed. in Child Development-Family Relations from the Pennsylvania State University. Upon graduation, she was hired as a Marriage and Family Counselor by Tressler Lutheran Services. She soon became the director of their State College office and remained with this remarkable agency for twenty years. She spent the rest of her satisfying professional life in private practice as an Individual, Couple and Family Counselor, helping many people – too numerous to count. Barbara enjoyed volunteer work and gave many years of service to the boards of the Centre County Youth Service Bureau, Hadassah and Congregation Brit Shalom. In recent years, she taught for C.A.L.L. and OLLI. She enjoyed sharing her skills on topics such as Anger Management, Assertiveness Training, Stress and Mahjong. Barbara enjoyed afternoons at the Arts Festival Information booth and as a volunteer on Christmas Day at the Mount Nittany Medical Center. She loved her more than thirty years of service as a weekly volunteer at Schlow Library. Barbara's hobbies included gardening, reading (she was a voracious reader of British themed mysteries,) piano lessons, crossword puzzles, embroidery, attending Broadway shows and good movies and cooking for hundreds of pot lucks. Recently she discovered Words with Friends and playing Scrabble with neighbors – she always loved a challenging word based game. Barbara loved and enjoyed many friends and had a wonderful social life. Social groups special to her were the State College Family, Havarah (another family-like group), Tuesday and Thursday Mahjong groups, the Lunch Bunch, Games Group, Crafts Group, and weekly dinners with Carolyn Bellanti and regular lunches and dinners with other friends. Part of her incredible legacy in State College is all of the people who she taught to play Mahjong. There are so many people in the area, again, too numerous to count, who enjoy their new social connections from learning Mahjong from Barbara. In addition to living a wonderful life, the family believes that Barbara will mostly be remembered as a kind and generous woman to both people she knew and didn’t know. Barbara is survived by her daughter, Susanne Marder and her husband, Bruce Pincus, of State College; a son, David Marder and his wife, Sherry, of West Jefferson, NC, two brothers, Joel Perlmutter and his wife Lynn, of Toms River, NJ, and Michael Perlmutter and his wife, Marlene of Miami Beach, FL. She is also survived by three grandsons: Jeffrey Pincus, Brandon Marder and Sam Marder, as well as one granddaughter, Sarah Pincus of State College. Barbara is also remembered by numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. Funeral Services will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 17, 2016 at Koch Funeral Home, 2401 S. Atherton St., State College with the Rabbi David Ostrich officiating. A graveside service will follow at Centre County Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Barbara's memory may be made to the Centre County Youth Service Bureau, Congregation Brit Shalom, or Schlow Library. Arrangements are under the care of Koch Funeral Home, State College. Online condolences and signing of the guest book may be entered at www.kochfuneralhome.com.