Age 91 of Medford NJ
Beverly passed away peacefully in the early morning hours of September 29, 2016.
Beverly was a woman of old-fashioned principles: kindness, compassion, commitment, charity, duty, steadfastness. Her long life, here and abroad, was quietly dedicated to serving and improving life for her family and friends as well as in her chosen profession as a Registered Nurse, and via personal advocacy as a volunteer and generous supporter of individuals, animals, and organizations in need.
Her girlhood was spent in southeast Asia (Singapore, India) and in the mid-West (Indiana, Ohio,). An excellent student, she graduated from Woodstock School http://www.woodstockschool.in/ in India followed by a college education at Northwestern University, http://www.northwestern.edu/index.html and Nursing School in Evanston IL, where she learned “to care for the unfortunate, to help those in need."
A shy person as she described herself, Beverly was quiet, very private, and humble. It was difficult to know her from a distance. She rarely engaged in heart-to-heart conversations, didn’t make chatty phone calls, type, use email or Facebook. Though she mailed cards for birthdays, special occasions, and Christmas regularly, Beverly only occasionally wrote letters and fewer in the last decades of her life. One needed to live near by, where you could observe what she liked doing and what she accomplished…which was considerable. Besides running well managed households wherever the Brush family lived in the USA: Illinois, Connecticut, California, and New Jersey; and abroad in Pakistan and India, where Beverly made a lasting contribution to important institutions in Lahore (Pakistan) that continue to this day.
A Methodist Mission employee, Beverly was expected to work weekly as an unpaid volunteer at Forman Christian College in Lahore. Drawing upon her nursing training, she took on the massive project of organizing and keeping up-to-date all the disorderly patient medical files at United Christian Hospital, https://www.facebook.com/UnitedChristianHospital/about/, a campus teaching facility. Decades before computers revolutionized data processing, these paper records were meticulously handwritten in her minuscule script and organized in a logical filing system.
To augment the Brush family’s mission salary, Beverly was hired as the staff nurse of the American Embassy in Lahore. Through the American Embassy she made connections with USAID, Ford Foundation, and USIS American service personnel. Mrs. Edison, from the Harvard advisory group under a USAID program at Punjab University, was the person who offered Beverly the position of being principal at the newly created Lahore American School (LAS).
One of the founding members of the Lahore American School (LAS) http://www.las.edu.pk/ with a group of American parents working in Lahore during the mid 1950s, Beverly was the school’s principal for a year. And second grade teacher the next year, where Cynthia and Victoria were both students from 1958-1963.
When Beverly became the LAS principal, she was motivated by personal experience. She did not want to send her daughters away to boarding school, at their tender ages of 8 and 6, a deeply distressing experience she had had as a young girl. But she did want them educated in an American-style school framework to make transition easier in the USA, while being culturally enriched living in another culture.
In addition to her important community work in Lahore and managing a busy household with 3-6 staff (a khansaman [cook], bearer, ayah [nanny], mali [gardener], dhobi [laundryman], an ironing woman, and darzi [tailor]; Beverly enjoyed Bridge club and games with friends; hosted dinner parties; fun, creative birthday parties for her daughters; and family friends. She made birthday cakes & Christmas gift goodies with eager assistance from Cynthia, Victoria, and Stanley.
Always interested in fashion and jewelry, she was a queen of style keeping up with the latest supplied by relatives in America. Beverly enjoyed styling her girls’ hair, and filled in as a hair dresser-stylist by trimming hair and giving permanents on the front verandah of our house, No. 15 on the Forman Christian College campus.
When Beverly and Stanley retired from mission work in the mid-1960s, the family moved to Berkeley California. Bev began specializing in geriatric nursing care, working with the elderly in retirement homes. After a move to Connecticut, she was hired by the Visiting Nurses Association (VNA) of Bridgeport to work with home bound seniors and low-income new mothers. Beverly also became the VNA nurses’ union liaison and advocate, working diligently to shape fair contracts for her coworkers’ benefit.
After retiring from 20 years of work with the VNA, Beverly gained a charitable reputation in Bridgeport Connecticut picking up trash at Seaside Park on her daily walks with Stanley. She even was featured in a Bridgeport Post news article for her dedication to beautify the area. Those daily walks continued at Lumberton and Medford Leas NJ as long as she was able to, even when Stanley didn’t go with her anymore. Beverly would say ‘Hello’ to the trees and pet her favorite animal sculptures after giving each one a name.
People, animals, and plants all thrived under her care. She was a collector of camel figurines, cobalt blue glass, sea glass, cat motifs, art, and people. She took in ‘extra daughters’ in Berkeley California (Laurie DeVos) and Bridgeport Connecticut (Lisa Tedesco & another friend) after Cynthia and Victoria went off to college. Beverly took to heart Kathi Bade and Rinku Bhattacharya, both University of Bridgeport History Department students of Stanley’s. She adopted a granddaughter Julianna Hunt, daughter of Cynthia’s friend Norma; and adored her God-daughter Adrienne Numaworse, daughter of a close VNA friend, Denise Broadax Anderson.
A remarkable lady she was! Beverly will be missed by her family…
Adoring husband of 69 years, Stanley Elwood Brush, her Woodstock High School sweetheart where they met 75 years ago in the Himalayas of India.
Loving daughters Cynthia and her husband Bill Grey and Victoria and her partner Joan Scholvin.
Wonderful grandsons Marc Brownlow, David (Blythe) Brownlow and 9-month-old great granddaughter Aislee.
Brother James Bruce (Nan) Amstutz and sister-in-law Frances Brush Schillinger.
Nephews and nieces: Jon (Anita) Brush, Kamala (Lucy) Brush, Tim (Ki) Brush, Gary Peterson, David Peterson, Eric (Deidre) Amstutz, Tim (Dawn) Amstutz, and Mark (Barbara) Amstutz, who visit monthly and especially loved her.
Grandnephews and grandnieces: Jake and Dora Brush, John and Laura Brush and Liz DeJong, Andrew and David Amstutz, step-grandnephew Jefferson, his wife Katherine and one month old Josephine.
A host of cousins from her parents’ and Stanley’s families.
And her ‘adopted’ family: Laurie and Fred Moore, Lisa Tedesco, Kathi and Ted Bade, Rinku Bhattacharya and Anshul Gupta, Julianna Hunt Koch, and God-daughter Adrienne Numaworse.
Beverly was predeceased by her parents Hobart and Celeste Amstutz, brother and sister-in-law John & Miriam Brush, brothers-in-law Warren ‘Pete’ Peterson and Fred Schillinger, grandson Marc’s wife Briana, nephew Steven Brush, and nephew Dave Peterson’s wife, Cherry.
She was loved by many, family, friends, and associates.
In lieu of flowers, donations to AngelPAWS Animal Shelter, http://www.angelpaws.org/donating.htm in are welcome: PO Box 282, Colonia NJ 07067. Angel PAWS is a 501(c)(3) organization. All donations are tax deductible.
Cremation arrangements were made under the kindly direction of Barbara DiBuono of the BLAKE-DOYLE Funeral Home, Collingswood NJ.
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