Eileen Claire Vickery

Eileen Claire Vickery (nee Herzog), a longtime resident of Summit, N.J., passed away Nov. 14, 2011, at the age of 88, following a long illness. A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 3, at 12:30 p.m., at Central Presbyterian Church, 70 Maple St., in Summit, N.J. For the past eight years, Eileen, also known as Nikki, was living at Sunrise Assisted Living in Morris Plains, N.J. Eileen and her husband of 57 years, Fred Vickery, who died in 2001, moved to Summit in 1963 from their birthplace of Philadelphia, Pa. Their four children all attended Summit public schools, from K-12. In Summit, Eileen worked at Roots clothiers in the 1970s and was an active member of Central Presbyterian Church. During the 1980s and '90s she volunteered as a docent at the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, N.J. Part of her duties there included handling a 60 pound boa constrictor for zoo visitors to see. An enthusiastic and talented singer, Eileen Herzog met Fred Vickery in the school chorus in the 8th grade. They married in 1944. At one point during World War II, while Fred was stationed at the Army base in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Eileen was hired for her skills at mechanical drawing, although she was unaware at the time that she was working on the Manhattan Project. Eileen is survived by her four children, Paul Vickery of Millington, N.J., Merle Johnson of Morristown, N.J., Phyllis Attisano of Newton, Mass., and Lisa Vickery of Hoboken, N.J. She has eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Turtle Back Zoo in her memory, via the Zoological Society of New Jersey Inc., 560 Northfield Ave., West Orange, N.J. 07052.