Page 30 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • April 10. 2013 Obituaries George Ackaway Sr. of Franklin Lakes died April 1. He was 90. Before retiring in the early 1990s, he was coowner of Ackaway Brothers in Paterson. He was a parishioner of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Oakland and a former member of Saint Ann’s Church in Paterson. He was an executive member at the YMCA in Paterson. He is survived by his children George Ackaway Jr. of Boonton Township and Mary Ackaway of Ridgewood, three granddaughters, and one great-grandchild. He is also survived by his siblings Edward Ackaway of Clifton, Joseph Ackaway of Wayne, and Katherine Castello of Pennsylvania. He was predeceased by his wife Madeline Ackaway (nee Daniels), his son Ronald Ackaway, and his siblings Michael and Josephine Ackaway. Arrangements were made by Vander Plaat Vermeulen Funeral Home in Franklin Lakes. The family requests that memorial Masses be said in memory of George, Madeline, or their late son, Ronnie. Milton S. “Scotty” Banta Jr. of Midland Park died March 30. He was 74. He was a U.S. Army veteran and a graduate of Pompton Lakes High School. Before retiring in 1992, he was the postmaster for the U.S. Postal Service in Midland Park. More recently, he was a driver for Wyckoff Florist. He is survived by his wife Audrey (nee Blom) of Midland Park, his children Cory Banta and Dana Banta, both of Kearny, and his stepchildren Ellen Tryon of Oakland, Jennie Keene of Midland Park, and Darlene Dykhouse of Glendale, Arizona. He is also survived by seven grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and his brothers Larry Banta of North Haledon, Robert Banta of Toms River, and Gary Banta of Mahwah. He was predeceased by his first wife Lynn R. (nee Ducceschi), and his parents Milton S. and Evelyn (nee Van Dyke) Banta. Arrangements were made by Vander Plaat Funeral Home in Wyckoff. Memorial donations may be made to the Midland Park Ambulance Corps, 42 Pierce Avenue, Midland Park, NJ 07432. John C. Schouten of Midland Park, formerly of Wayne, Hawthorne, and Clifton, died March 29. He was 90. Before retiring, he was a handyman with the Hawthorne Board of Education. He was a member of Hawthorne Gospel Church and Grace Bible Church. He is survived by his children Maryann Schwinge and John M. Schouten, 10 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife Lois Schouten and his son David Schouten. Arrangements were made by Browning Forshay Funeral Home in Hawthorne. Memorial donations may be made to Hawthorne Gospel Church, 2000 Route 208 Hawthorne, NJ 07506 or Grace Bible Church, 369 High Mountain Road, North Haledon, NJ 07508. Steven Jack Soodsma of Vancouver, Washington, formerly of Wyckoff and Midland Park, died March 24. He was George Ackaway Sr. 56. He was a member of the Ramapo Regional High School Class of 1974, and the Colorado State University Class of 1979. He had been employed in the retail automobile sales business, and had resided in Vancouver for the past 22 years. He is survived by his brothers Robert Soodsma of Hamburg and Thomas Soodsma of Vero Beach, Florida, his nieces Hope Douma and Alyson Kanet, and two grandnieces. He is also survived by his aunts Gertrude “Trudy” Dykstra and Dorothy “Dot”’ Sluisman, both of Prospect Park. In lieu of memorial donations, friends and family are asked to recall and relate a fond or humorous memory of Steve while spending time with a loved one. Derk Stavinga of Wyckoff, formerly of Hawthorne, died March 30. He was 87. Born in Uithuizen, Netherlands, he came to the United States in 1954. He owned and operated the Sharp Shop in Midland Park with his brother-in-law John Valkema for 25 years before his retirement in 1982. He was a member of the Cedar Hill Christian Reformed Church in Wyckoff. He is survived by his wife Tena (nee Kersaan), and his children Jacob Derk Stavinga, Trudi Churco, and Marian Trossman. He is also survived by his 10 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and his sisters Tillie Meinders and Wieke Van der Ploeg, both of whom reside in the Netherlands. Arrangements were made by Vander Plaat Funeral Home in Wyckoff. Memorial donations may be made to the Eastern Christian School Association, 50 Oakwood Avenue, North Haledon, NJ 07508. Abbie Winson died March 26. She was 87. She was born on Jan. 1, 1926 to Bertha and Norton Franks in Pittsburgh, and lived in Philadelphia and the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. Her vast and varied early Derk Stavinga Milton S. ‘Scotty’ Banta Jr. Abbie Winson education included Music and Art High, the Arts Students League, Queens College, and the Sorbonne in Paris, where she studied medicine, shifting her interests to anatomy and medical illustration. She spoke fluent and nuanced French. She studied painting with Vaclav Vytlacil and Hans Hoffmann in New York, and was greatly influenced by the modernists and abstract expressionists, but developed her own dynamic and calligraphic style. She created mixedmedia paintings before the term was coined. She learned typesetting from Sy Winson, another pioneer in a new field with whom she had three children and eventually married. She earned master’s degrees in fine arts, and special education. She taught art, science, math, and learning disabled children. She worked at grade schools, high schools, and in universities. She became involved with computer graphics on early model mainframe computers. She loved to paint and returned often to large acrylic canvases and watercolors with collage. She exhibited in group and solo shows in New York City with much acclaim. In her 70s, she took up Chinese calligraphy and the Mandarin language. In her 80s, she frequently traveled to the south of France to paint, collaborated with small press magazines on cover art for poetry books, and projected her paintings over dancers and acrobats as part of the Nouveau Cirque movement. She is survived by her daughters Suzi Winson of New York and Julie Winson of New Mexico, and her granddaughter Isabel Winson-Sagan. She was predeceased by her husband Sy Winson, her son Robert, and her siblings Julian Franks and Doris Goldman. There will be a year-long posthumous retrospective of 70 years of work at a new gallery that is being developed in her honor: Art and Circuses in Long Island City, New York. Memorial donations may be made through artandcircuses.com. Arrangements were made by C.C. Van Emburgh Funeral Home in Ridgewood. Religious Notes John C. Schouten Steven Jack Soodsma International speaker Rob Gilbert will present “God and Health” on Thursday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. The discussion will be held at the First Church of Christ, Scientist located at 259 Godwin Avenue in Midland Park. “This lecture corrects misconceptions often held about God and shows the nature of God, divine love, to be a consistent healing principle,” said Gilbert. “The ideas shared in this lecture will break down the long-held beliefs that assign the body to material theories of medicine and the mind to religion, thus hiding the power of spiritual understanding to heal. Exploring the early investigations of Mary Baker Eddy in the mind/body relationship, not unlike investigations going on today, reveals the path that eventually led her to the discovery of Christian Science and the practice of spiritual healing that corrects misconceptions about God, secures health, and restores the body.” Gilbert’s ideas are based on the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the Bible, and as discussed in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy. Gilbert to present ‘God and Health’ Gilbert is a member of the Christian Science Board. A practitioner and teacher of Christian Science healing, he holds a master’s of theology degree from Boston University School of Theology, where he majored in biblical studies. While serving as a chaplain in the United States Army, he had a variety of assignments, including military prisons, hospitals, and a tour of duty in Vietnam. Gilbert retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel. More recently, he co-produced two educational videos for medical nursing schools and hospitals, answering commonly asked questions about the practice of spiritual healing, how it informs health care decisions, and spirituality in nursing care. He has addressed medical audiences on the practice of spiritual healing, college classes in women’s studies and alternative healing, high school classes on the subject of comparative religions, and has spoken in jails and prisons. For more information about the program in Midland Park, call Joan Fox at (201) 389-6860.