Carol Stewart

Carol Teresa Scasserra Stewart, age 86, passed away on July 31, 2022. She was born in 1935 in Princeton, NJ. She wasthe eldest of six children by Gertrude Hoepfner and Benjamin Scasserra. She was part of a large Italian-German family living on the historic Fairacres Estate, a working dairy farm with a menagerie of animals, gardens, and fruit trees.

In the summers, the family vacationed at their home in Normandy Beach on the New Jersey shore. Later, the Scasserra family bought a cabin on the north end of Kezar Lake in Lovell, ME. It was on this beloved lake that Carol learned to paddle the j-stroke and climbed Mount Washington at Camp Mudjekeewis. It was a formative experience where she made her dearest lifelong friends. 

Carol attended Princeton High School where she met her husband of over 60 years, Robert Stewart. She continued her studies focusing on history and languages at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. After college, Carol and Bob lived on Christopher Street in NYC. She worked as a fashion publicist and right hand gal to fashion designer Tina Leser, where her love of clothing grew by the closetful. She also worked as copy editor at ad agency, CJ LaRoche. 

Carol and Bob moved to Kendall Park, Princeton, and then Hopwell, NJ to the historic John Hart Farm, where her four daughters, Karen, Celia, Alison, and Emily, were raised. She was a wonderful mother and a strong advocate for each of her girls. It was on Hart Avenue where Carol and Bob met good friends and neighbors Pam and Dave Baker.

When Carol reentered the workforce, she acquired her real estate license and sold homes and horse farms in Hunterdon County and the Pennington area, many times reaching the million dollar sales club. Later she and Bob retired to Kennett Square, PA.

Carol loved to entertain. Her love language was food, the dinner table her realm. She held many parties in Hopewell, always cooking up an amazing meal for the friends and family she welcomed to her home. Her specialty was Italian cuisine and often said “Cooking is a gift to people when you put a lot of yourself into it.”  Carol’s cooking and homemaking were featured as the ‘guest gourmet’ in the local paper, the Trentonian. 

She was active in the Princeton Italian Club where she would gather with her women friends to practice speaking Italian. She was a wordsmith and a Scrabble player extraordinaire. Carol and Bob were members of Black Rock Gun Club where they would shoot sporting clays with their good friends. She served as treasurer of the Amwell Valley Hounds Pony Club and Ducks Unlimited. 

Carol also inherited her mother’s creativity and was a handy crafter, sewer, knitter and gardener. She and her friends gathered together and created a sewing group where Carol would make dolls and dresses for her girls. Every Christmas there were beautiful homemade gifts under the tree. 

Carol and Bob loved to travel, especially to Italy. They visited her father’s birthplace in Roccamandolfi, stayed with good friends Ann and Bill Brown in Milan, and toured the countryside of Tuscany.

As her girls grew up and married, Carol loved her expanding family from her sons in law, to her grandchildren, and great grandchildren. She was supportive and caring to all. 

She is survived by her daughters: Celia Shafer and husband Mark, Alison Batman and husband Bill, Emily Stewart and husband Drew. Her grandchildren: Benjamin, Robert and Samuel Schluter; Jackson, Henry and Margaret Shafer; Sophia and Emily Batman; Miles and Margot Kissinger. Her great grandchildren: Burchil and Bethani Schluter and Kennedy Schluter. Her sisters: Linda Masada and Andrea Scasserra. Carol was preceded in death by the love of her life Robert B. Stewart, her daughter Karen Schluter Perrone and siblings: Judith Scasserra Cinciripini, Marilyn Scasserra, and Kenneth Scasserra.

A graveside service will be held on Friday, August 12, 2022 at 2:00 pm at Highland Cemetery, 95 Hopewell Wertsville Rd., Hopewell, NJ 08525.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Kezar Lake Watershed Association in Carol’s name Kezarwatershed.org or mail to Kezar Lake Watershed Associatio P O Box 88, Lovell, ME 04051