Helen Linda Mahler, beloved wife, mother, and grandmother, known to all as Linda, died peacefully at home in Stockton, New Jersey, on March 14. She was 73.
Linda was born on January 5, 1952 in Long Branch, New Jersey, to Harry and Helen Mahler. Her childhood in Highlands, New Jersey, was spent on the beach and in the ocean. She graduated from Mater Dei High School in New Monmouth, NJ, where she was captain of the cheerleading squad, homecoming queen, sang in a folk band, and appeared on stage in a production of The King and I.
On graduating from The College of New Jersey (then Trenton State College) with an English degree, Linda married and relocated to New Hope, Pennsylvania, where she raised two children, Katie and Mike. She worked briefly as a teacher at New Hope-Solebury Elementary before she took a position at Princeton University as a College Administrator, a job she loved and was loved in, where she became known across campus for her warmth, humor, and deep care for students. She was a second mom to many hundreds of students over the years, often inviting them to share holiday meals with her family. The final chapter of her career was spent as a fundraiser in the office of Annual Giving, where she reconnected with some of the same students she knew from their freshman year who were then adults making gifts to the university. For those efforts, she was made an Honorary Member of the Princeton University Class of 1993.
In 2003, Linda remarried to Edward (Ted) Champlin, a Professor of Classics at Princeton University. After some cajoling, she convinced him to move into what became their dream house in Stockton, New Jersey. There they spent many happy years entertaining old friends and new, building a community that often centered on their daily trips to Rojo’s coffee shop. With Ted she travelled the world, and with him she was happy to return home; she loved the beauty and serenity of the rolling farmland land around her. She also loved and was proud to be a part of the community she found in Lambertville—she delighted in bumping into friends on the towpath or on the street. She was famous among her friends and family for her tomatoes, her love of the Phillies and Eagles, her love of reading, and her cooking. Her cosmo cocktails were incomparable, and she was known to deliver them to the door of friends in need. “They contain Vitamin C,” she often said. Her 70th birthday present to herself — a rare extravagance in the form of a convertible Mini Cooper in a color called “Zesty Yellow” — was known to turn heads and smiles around town.
Linda was a fearless survivor of breast cancer for 21 years. She kept journals of her medical journey, great piles of notes about her treatment history, and she shared her story online, building a community on social media. Her final years were spent caring for her beloved husband, who suffered from Alzheimer’s and predeceased her by two months. In the face of these hardships, Linda was naturally kind, loving, and funny. Elegant and beautiful, she had a rebellious spirit and was a proud feminist. She was a tireless advocate for democracy and equality. Most of all, she will be remembered for how she loved her family, for her easy warmth and boundless interest in the goings-on of her children and grandchildren, for the time she spent with them, which she cherished most of all, and for the legacy of quiet kindness she leaves in her absence. She died at home, her two loving children by her side.
Linda was predeceased by her parents, Helen and Harry, brothers Peter and Harry, and husband Ted.
Linda is survived by her daughter, Katie Loughran and son-in-law Joe Ujj of New Hope; son Mike Loughran and daughter-in-law Megan Johnson of Philadelphia; three grandchildren: Mimi and Eero Ujj of New Hope, and Hugo Loughran of Philadelphia; sister Dawn Stout of Rumson and niece Sarah Stout of Hoboken; and two stepsons, Alex Champlin of Toronto and James Champlin of Queensland, Australia.
For information about a celebration of life in memory of Linda and her husband Ted, please email her son, Mike Loughran at [email protected].
Donations in Linda’s honor may be made to Doctors Without Borders.
