Alice Blodgett Hoon of Newtown, PA died January 13, 2007 at Pennswood Village Retirement Community in Newtown. She was 91.
A native of Springfield, MA, Mrs. Hoon graduated from Classical High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in music education from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and a master's degree in choral music from the University of Michigan. She taught for three years at the Sleighton Farm School before joining the Swarthmore public schools from 1939 unto 1950 as director of choral music.
Mrs. Hoon expanded the choral program at Swarthmore High School to include a large chorus, girls' glee club, a girls' trio and two boy's quartets. Only the chorus had rehearsal time during school hours; the other groups practiced before school at 7 a.m. in the morning. Her first year in Swarthmore she was asked to lead a chorus for the annual (in those days) Pageant of the Nativity and did so for the next ten years.
In 1950 she married Paul W Hoon, pastor of the First Methodist Church in Germantown, PA. When he became a professor of pastoral theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, they moved to Ridgewood, NJ, where she taught vocal music in the public schools.
Upon his retirement, they moved to Princeton, NJ, and subsequently to Pennswood. Until her last illness, she remained active in community life and is remembered for her vibrant leadership of the concert committee that brought leading artists to Pennswood.
In addition to her work in music, she was active with Church Women United, Recordings for the Blind, the YMCA, and Meals on Wheels. She was also an enthusiastic hiker and gardener at the Hoon summer home in Peacham, VT.
Predeceased by her husband and a brother, Mrs. Hoon is survived by a brother, Alden Blodgett of Ludlow, VT and St. Petersburg, FL; two stepsons, Peter W Hoon of Nederland CO, and David N Hoon of Denver, CO; two grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
A concert in her honor will be held at Pennswood later this year and an interment service will take place in Peacham in early July.
(From the Swarthmorean, January 2007)