Ethel Pankove

Ethel W. Pankove (Wasserman), 91, of Princeton died April 2, 2018. Born in Coaldale, Pa., she moved to Trenton in 1943. 

First in her class at Coaldale High School, Mrs. Pankove finished high school at Trenton Central High School. She graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia with both a B.A. and M.A. in English literature. 

Her first job after college was an English teacher at the NJ State Home for Girls on Whittlesey Road in Trenton. She worked for one year as an English teacher at Princeton High School in 1953. Later, after raising her sons, she returned to Rutgers University, graduating with an Ed.D. in school psychology. She completed her dissertation on the effects of low socioeconomic status on urban children in the Oakland, Calif., Public Schools. Working part-time in the Princeton Regional School District as a school psychologist, she later transferred to the Montgomery Township School District as a school psychologist and its first director of special services. She innovated an early identification with special needs children at kindergarten registration. 

She was a former president of the NJ Association of School Psychologists, and a fellow of the American Board of Professional Psychology. 

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She retired in 1985, moving to Boulder, Colo., where her husband became a research professor at the University of Colorado. When he became an emeritus professor, they formed Astralux, a research company where she served as its president. The business was sold in 2002. In 2010, they relocated back to Princeton. 

An advocate for the disadvantaged, she participated in the March on Washington (D.C.) for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963, and contributed to many charities. She taught English as a second language to many immigrants. 

Predeceased by her husband, Jacques I., in July 2016, she is survived by two sons, Martin (Caroline) of Alexandria, Va., and Simon (Melissa) of West Windsor; two grandchildren; and her longtime companion, Iris Gregorio. 

Services were held April 8 with arrangements by Orland’s Ewing Memorial Chapel, Ewing.