Mary Barbara Hess

On Sunday, August 24, 2025, M. Barbara Hess, loving wife, mother, and grandmother passed away at the age of 85.

Barbara was born on October 26, 1939 in York, Pennsylvania to Mildred and Don Eck. After completing her studies in 3 years at Millersville College, she began her elementary school teaching career. On August 20, 1960, she married Richard (Dick) Hess in York, PA. They raised two children together, a son Tom and a daughter Sue.

Upon graduation from college, Barbara taught grade school in Gettysburg, PA, Reamstown, PA, Media, PA, and Bucks County, PA. She was a devoted, passionate teacher who spent tireless hours to decorate her classrooms, talk with parents at night and tutor students after school. Her most fulfilling teaching moments were as an Instructional Support Teacher, working with students who needed extra help outside the classroom.

Barbara was an integral member and devoted servant of each church that her husband Dick served. She sang in the choir, served on alter guild, taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, led the Youth Group, organized potluck dinners and many other activities. As a grandmother, she loved her grandchildren beyond words, baking chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter candy with them, spending time with them on the beach, taking them to the Christmas Light Show and cheering for them at their baseball and hockey games. In recent years, she loved spending time with her neighbors, meeting her fellow retired teachers for lunch and doing puzzles with friends.

She was preceded in death by her loving husband, Dick, her mother Mildred Eck, her father Don Eck and brother-in-law David. She is survived by her daughter Sue and her husband Ed, her son Tom and husband Jim, grandchildren Sean and Ryan, sister-in-laws Shirley, Jocelyn and Gloria and Jocelyn’s husband Bruce and Gloria’s husband Leon, as well as many loved nieces and nephews.

A funeral service will be held on Friday, August 29, 2025 at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church, 2220 Pennington Road, Ewing NJ 08638. The family will be present to greet guests beginning at 10:00 am. The service and interment of ashes begins at 11:00 am.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to:

Abiding Presence Lutheran Church

2220 Pennington Road

Ewing, NJ 08638

Arrangements are entrusted to J. Allen Hooper Funeral Chapel 41 W. Trenton Ave Morrisville, PA 9067.