Obituary of Anne Louise Kruger

Anne Louise Kruger (née Anne Louise Longsworth) passed away Saturday February 10, 2024. 

She was born in New York City, NY on August 8, 1931 to Helen Frances (Cady) Longsworth and Louis G. Longsworth.  As a granddaughter of Hamilton Perkins Cady, a celebrated chemist and Professor Emeritus at Kansas University, she graduated from Kansas University with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry.  She then won a Fulbright scholarship to study chemistry in Leon, France.  After returning from France, Anne married Leo Henry Kruger, whom she met at Kansas University where he had completed a PhD, also in chemistry.  The couple lived a few years in Berlin, NH (where their daughters Lynn and Nancy were born), about 30 years in Kendall Park, NJ (where Wayne and Mary were born), and about 25 years in Asbury, NJ before moving to Cocoa Beach, FL to live near their eldest daughter, Lynn.  They were happily married for 61 years until Leo’s death in 2016.

About the same time that their youngest child Mary started school, Anne also returned to academia.  She attended Rutgers University where she completed a Master of Science in Environmental Science in 1976, a Master of Science in Ecology in 1977, and a PhD in Ecology in 1981.  She was subsequently featured in the 1982 Academy Award Nominated documentary “In Our Water”, which told the story of a local landowner whose well water had been contaminated by a nearby landfill.  Anne then went on to work as an Environmental Specialist Consultant for various companies and spent many years working with the Passaic River Coalition, a group devoted to the preservation and protection of northern New Jersey’s waterways.

Besides the environment, Anne had a great passion for travel.  She travelled occasionally to Europe, as well as Central and South America, but her greatest joy was in road trips across the country to visit national parks.  This was another love which was passed down from her grandfather, who had built a cabin in Estes Park, CO near the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Anne and Leo travelled widely across the country with their children, going as far as Alaska, and often spent time at the cabin.  One of Anne’s favorite boasts was that she had visited every state except Hawaii, and she leaves behind a veritable library of slides from her travels.

Anne and Leo were also avid church-goers.  In 1959 they were founding members of the Community Presbyterian Church of the Sand Hills in Kendall Park, NJ (now Grace Presbyterian Church), and were regular and active attendants until they moved to Cocoa Beach in 2013.  Their move to Asbury, NJ in the late 1980’s, which was 45 minutes away from the Kendall Park church, was not a deterrent to their attendance.  Anne was also always a generous giver to many charities, especially charities which served to preserve nature and the environment.

Anne is survived by her daughters, Lynn, Nancy and Mary,  her two grandchildren, Laurel and Charlie, her brother, Ralph, and her sister, Stella. A service to celebrate her life will take place on March 9, 2024 at 11:00 at the Beckman Williamson Funeral Home in Cocoa Beach, with a wake at her home following the ceremony.