Pontier, Grace (Mrs. Peter Lester) 1914-2004

PONTIER, BONNEMA, DEVRIES

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - volunteer (email)
Date: 8/25/2014 at 08:45:16

Sioux County Capital Democrat January 8, 2004

Grace Pontier, age 89, of Orange City, died on Wednesday, Dec. 31,2003, at the Orange City Municipal Hospital. A funeral service was held on Tuesday, Jan. 6, at the Vander Plaat Funeral Home in Wyckoff, N.J. Reverends Andrew Rienstra and Ralph Pontier officiated. Burial followed at the Lodi, N.J.,Cemetery. Local arrangements were with the Oolman Funeral Home in Orange City.

Grace Agnes was born March 27,1914,in Passaic, N, J., the daughter of Peter and Anna (Bonnema) de Vries. She graduated from Newark Normal School, William Paterson State College and Rutgers State University. For four years, she was a teacher in a two-room school in Comstock, Mich.

On Aug. 28,1942, she married Peter Lester Pontier in Passaic. They made their home in Garfield, N.J., and she was a teacher in the Midland Park, N. J., ChristianSchool for a short time. In 1950, they moved into a home they built themselves in Franklin Lakes, N.J. After their youngest child began school, she returned to the classroom at the Franklin Avenue School in Franklin Lakes. In 1977, after 19 years there, she retired as head librarian and media specialist for the entire Franklin Lakes school system.

In 1995, Mr. and Mrs. Pontier moved to Orange City. Grace became a resident of the Heritage House Nursing Home in Orange City in January of 2003. In April of 2003, she ransferred to the Happy Siesta Health Care Center in Remsen.

Mrs. Pontier was a member of the Redeemer United Reformed Church in Orange City. Earlier, she had been a church organist for more than 50 years and was adirector of the Lodi Cemetery Company.

Survivors include her husband "Les"; five sons, Peter and his wife Marianne of Oakland, N.J.; James and his wife Loretta of SpiritLake, Id.; John and his wife Linda of Columbia, Md.; Ralph and his wife Lois of Orange City; and Philip of Dover,N.H.; 10 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, and a great-great-granddaughter.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by two sisters, Florence deVries and Annabelle Ackerman.