Russell Frederick Landwehr

Russell Frederick Landwehr

Mr. Russell Frederick Landwehr, 98, died Friday, December 8, 2017 in the Swedish Medical Center in Edmonds, Washington.

Visitation will take place in the Kowalski Funeral Home, 515 Roselle Street, Linden on Tuesday, December 19^th. from 9:00AM to 12:00Noon. The visitation will conclude with a prayer service followed by the procession to Bayview Cemetery in Leonardo, where the prayers of committal will be offered and the burial will take place in the family plot.

In memory of Mr. Landwehr’s peaceful passing, please make donation to “The Nature Conservancy” or a culturally historic organization of one’s choosing.

Born on May 1, 1919 in Elizabeth, N.J., Mr. Landwehr was the 12^th generation descendant of some of the oldest families in North America, including the earliest British and European founders of the first towns and colleges in New England e.g. Boston, Cambridge, Ipswich, Lynn, N. Andover, Medford, Salem, Scituate & Watertown-Massachusetts; Branford, Fairfield, Hartford, Milford, New Haven, Norwalk, Stamford, Windsor & Wethersfield-Connecticut; Portsmouth & Providence-Rhode Island…. as well as the first settlements in the mid-Atlantic states of New York - New Amsterdam-NY County; Germantown-Columbia County; Breuckelen, Boswijck/Bushwick, Gravesend-Kings County; Maspeth Kills/Elmhurst-Queens County; Bedford, Eastchester, Pound Ridge, & Rye-Westchester County; Hunt’s Point & Cornell’s Neck-Bronx County; Southold & Southampton-Suffolk County – and of New Jersey - Newark-Essex County; Perth Amboy, Woodbridge-Middlesex County; Cream Ridge, Freehold, Middletown, Portland Point/Atlantic Highlands-Monmouth County; Bound Brook, Bridgewater, Peapack, Pluckemin/Bedminster –Somerset County  – and of Pennsylvania – Oley-Berks County;  Abington Township & Lower Merion Township-Montgomery County; Germantown & Philadelphia-Philadelphia County.

Having graduated from Linden High School in 1937, his early life as an artist and poet was somewhat stunted by the ‘Great Depression’ whereby he joined the “CCC’s” aka ‘the Civilian Conservation Corps’ for a time under President Franklin Roosevelt. Then came World War II which proved an even greater hardship for him personally because of his religious background as a descendant of the First English Baptists and Congregationalists, and English, German, Welsh, and Scottish Quakers in America.  Initially Mr. Landwehr was a ‘conscientious objector’ but because of Hitler’s mandate of destruction and terrorism upon the citizens of Europe, Mr. Landwehr enlisted in the U.S. Army’s Medical Corps.  After the war he settled down to raise a family in which he poured all of his energy and love into – in a quiet, introspective way.

He also obtained an Associate Degree in Mechanical Design at the Newark College of Engineering (today’s NJIT) and spent the last 14 years of his career as a draftsman for the City of Linden in their Civil Engineering Department.  But his love of Nature and writing Poetry, and Fishing amongst gently hidden babbling streams and viewing the unfathomable mysteries of the universe at night - were a constant throughout his life.  His way of adjusting to modernity was to take comfort in ‘Enlightenment’ literature, classical antiquity, local historical scholarship and conservation groups.  He reflected the best in humanity in all he touched and did as a member of the ‘American Ethical Union’, the ‘American Association of Boyers’, the ‘American Littoral Society, the ‘International Society of Poets’ and the ‘Watchung Nature Club’.

It was only very late in life that he discovered his true medieval European heritage – his ancient ancestral links to Great Britain, France and Scandinavia in particular - the first recorded Vikings (e.g. King Harald ‘Bluetooth’), Troubadours (e.g. William IX, Duke of Aquitaine), Crusading Knights & Knight Templars (e.g. Prince Bohemund I of Antioch), and the First Christian Kings of Europe (e.g. Prince Mieszko I, Founder of Poland), as well as the Founders of the oldest universities in the world like Balliol College, Oxford University, Clare College and Queens’ College, Cambridge University and the University of Salamanca in Spain.

Moreover he could draw a straight line back from his FIVE ‘rebel’ American Revolutionary War ancestors – back to15 of the original ‘rebel’ Barons of the Magna Carta of 1215 including King John and William Marshal, 1^st Earl of Pembroke, as well as ‘rebel’ Simon de Montfort, Founder of the First English Parliamanent, and ‘rebel’ Owain Glyndwr, National Hero of Wales.  And the origins of his storytelling talents - could be magically traced closer to home - to the First Poet of America - Anne Dudley Bradstreet - his long, lost 8th great-grandmother.

Mr. Landwehr is survived by his daughter, Jan Elizabeth Landwehr of Lynnwood, Washington and his two sons, Val Russell Landwehr and his wife, Jane Rosemarin of Minneapolis, Minnesota and Tad Eric Landwehr and his wife, Kim Losey of Fort Wayne, Indiana and one grandson, Peter Rosemarin Landwehr of San Carlos, California.

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