Charles Ethelbert "Bert" Abell

Services: A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Thursday, December 12, 2013, at 10:30 AM at Our Lady’s Catholic Church at Medley’s Neck, 41410 Medley’s Neck Road, Leonardtown, MD with the Rev. Lawrence A. Young officiating, assisted by Deacon Thomas C. Spalding, Sr. Concelebrants will include Rev. Msgr. Karl Chimiak, Rev. John Barry, and Rev. Rory T. Conley. Interment will follow in the church cemetery. Visitation: The family will receive friends on Wednesday, December 11, 2013 from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM in the Mattingley-Gardiner Funeral Home chapel with prayers recited at 7:00 PM followed by recitiation of the Rosary and Knights of Columbus prayers from St. Mary's Council No. 1470 and the Father Andrew White Assembly No. 377. Charles Ethelbert “Bert” Abell, Jr., 87, died peacefully at his home at Placentia Farm on Breton Bay in Medley’s Neck near Leonardtown on December 7, 2013, from complications of leukemia, with his two children by his side. Born on March 20, 1926 in Leonardtown, Bert grew up on the farm, whose major crops included tobacco, wheat, corn, and beans. He attended Our Lady’s School in Medley’s Neck from 1932 to 1940. He worked on Placentia Farm following high school graduation from St. Mary’s Academy in Leonardtown in 1944. During the 1940s, while in high school during World War II and beyond, Bert often went on fire calls with the Leonardtown Volunteer Fire Department. He also was a member of the National Guard in Leonardtown. After four years of working on the farm while older brothers were aviators in World War II and its aftermath, he attended Mount Saint Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, graduating with a BA in history and education in 1952. Following college, Bert served in the United States Army and was deployed in the Army Security Agency at Herzo Base in Germany from 1954 to 1957. Upon returning to Maryland in the late 1950s, Bert began his career in education as a teacher with the Prince George’s County Board of Education in Camp Springs, Maryland. He then worked as a Rural Mail Carrier with a rural route out of the Leonardtown Post Office in the early 1960s, while starting work on his master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Maryland. On August 11, 1962, he married his beloved wife Jane Teresa Ryon, daughter of Allison Ford Ryon and Caroline Olympia Goldsmith Ryon of Waldorf. He was hired by the St. Mary’s County Board of Education as its last teaching principal, managing his own classroom and leading the entire school. Bert served at Piney Point Elementary School from 1963 to 1966. He had a long career as an elementary school principal including opening Greenview Knolls Elementary School in 1966, where he stayed until 1980. He retired as a principal from Oakville Elementary School in 1986, but continued working a variety of jobs including as a mosquito control applicator and dispatcher for the Maryland Department of Agriculture, a guide at the Visitor Information Center at the St. Mary’s County Chamber of Commerce office in Mechanicsville, and a tourism specialist at the St. Mary’s County Welcome Center in Charlotte Hall. Maintaining Placentia Farm was always his joyful second job throughout most of his life, except during his college studies and army deployment and during his final illnesses. Bert was a life-long member of Our Lady’s Church at Medley’s Neck, where he organized the first group of lay lectors and actively served the parish. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus St. Mary’s Council No. 1470 in Leonardtown for over 66 years, and served as Grand Knight and in nearly every position in the organization. He was a member and officer of the Knights of Columbus Father Andrew White Assembly No. 377. To support local charitable groups and Catholic schools, Bert volunteered at Knights of Columbus Bingo on Fridays at Father Andrew White, S.J. School from the late 1950s until August 2013. During multiple decades he served on the Father Andrew White, S.J. School Advisory Board. As a descendant of some of the earliest English settlers in southern Maryland, Bert had an avid interest in local history. He became a charter member of the St. Mary’s County Historical Society in 1952 and participated in the group for 61 years. In recent years he was one of the final two surviving charter members. Bert served as President of the St. Mary’s County Retired Teachers Association (now the St. Mary’s County Public Schools Retirees Association) from 1996 to 1998. Bert was a member of the St. Mary’s County Farm Bureau and volunteered at the St. Mary’s County Fair, both when it was hosted by the Xaverian Brothers at Leonard Hall and later at the St. Mary’s County Fairgrounds. Bert was the Republican Chief Election Judge for the Leonardtown Middle School precinct from its opening until 2006. He was preceded in death by his dear wife, Jane Ryon Abell (died June 14, 1993); by his parents, Charles Ethelbert Abell, Sr. and Marie Whitney Hungerford Abell; and by two brothers, Col. Joseph Dent Abell of San Antonio, Texas and Charles Whitney Abell of St. Cloud, Florida. Bert leaves behind a large number of family members and friends to mourn his passing. Bert is survived by his son Brian Bert Abell of Leonardtown, his daughter Allison Abell Banicki of Austin, Texas, his son-in-law Brian Banicki, and his grandson Elias Ethelbert Banicki. Bert is also survived by his brother and sister-in-law Dr. James Esten Abell and Eda Ann “Sis” Abell of Hyattsville; his sister and brother-in-law Lucille Abell Nunn and Joe Nunn of Rochester, New York; his sister-in-law Rita Ryon Wells of Sangerville, Maine; and his sister-in-law Ann Ryon Perrin Moriarty of Annapolis. He is also survived by numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews, including his goddaughters Dr. Jeanette Marie Abell of Columbus, Ohio; Patricia Abell Fordonski of Geneva, Illinois; and Debby Abell Hays of Jacksonville, Florida; and his godson Mark S. Nunn of Fairport, New York. The family will receive friends on Wednesday, December 11, 2013 from 5:00 – 8:00 PM with prayers offered at 7:00 PM at the Mattingly-Gardiner Funeral Home at 41590 Fenwick Street in Leonardtown, MD. General prayers will be followed by the recitation of the Rosary and Knights of Columbus prayers from St. Mary’s Council Number 1470 and the Father Andrew White Assembly Number 377. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Thursday, December 12, 2013, at 10:30 AM at Our Lady’s Catholic Church at Medley’s Neck, 41410 Medley’s Neck Road, Leonardtown, MD with the Rev. Lawrence A. Young officiating, assisted by Deacon Thomas C. Spalding, Sr. Concelebrants will include Rev. Msgr. Karl Chimiak, Rev. John Barry, and Rev. Rory T. Conley. Interment will follow in the cemetery at Our Lady’s Catholic Church in Medley’s Neck. Pallbearers will be Jason C. Abell, Thomas M. Abell, William Smyth Ethelbert Abell, Al Ammann, Charles William Cuffley II, and James W. Mattingly, Jr. Honorary pallbearers will be Dr. John F. Fenwick, Bernard J. Goldsborough, William Edelin Gough, Jr., Jack Hazuda, Brison Hungerford, Robert B. Norris, Paul S. Perrin, and William P. Russell. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the St. Mary’s County Historical Society, P.O. Box 212, Leonardtown, MD 20650 or to Our Lady’s Catholic Church at Medley’s Neck, 41348 Medley’s Neck Road, Leonardtown, MD 20650.