Harry Eugene Ailster lost a valiant and courageous battle
with cancer and passed from this life on August 7, 2016.
Harry was born May 19,
1931 in Greenup, Kentucky where he developed the deep talent and love for music
that sustained him throughout his life.
At a young age, while listening to his
sister practice piano, he learned that he could copy her by ear, leading to
local notoriety as a child piano player and then many years of formal piano
instruction.
After high school he attended and graduated from Central State
University in Wilberforce, Ohio, as a music major. In college, Harry met his
lifelong friends, "adopted" sister, Janet Mercer of Freehold, New
Jersey and her husband to be, classmate Richard Freeman of Detroit. They were
his family throughout his life. Harry was an advanced ROTC student, and was
commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry after graduation. He
was called from Reserve Status to Active Duty in October 1954 and served in
Munich, Germany, where he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in April 1956. He was relieved
from Active Duty in November 1956 and returned to the U.S. with an Honorable
Discharge. After returning to the U.S., Harry worked briefly in a business in
Dayton, Ohio.
He then moved to New Jersey, where he worked in music therapy
with his "sister" Janet at the former Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital.
After moving to New Jersey he lived in Freehold and then in Asbury Park, where
he participated in local theater groups, another lifelong passion of Harry's.
In 1967, Harry began working as a music teacher in New Providence, New Jersey.
As a teacher he worked at various times with chorus, as band front director and
as a director of student productions. He
loved teaching and his students and made many friends in the school district,
among them Sharon Tillou and Betty Metzger who remained in close contact during
his illness in 2016. He eventually moved to Westfield, New Jersey and continued
to participate in local theater groups.
Harry moved to Plainfield in the late 1980s. After his retirement from
teaching in 1993, Harry devoted himself to volunteering in Plainfield. He
volunteered for the Historical Society of Plainfield, the non-profit that
operates Drake House Museum, spending many years as a board member and House
Chairman. He was always willing to pass the hat and sell 50/50 tickets at
Historical Society events, and he made each drawing a theatrical production. He
participated in activities sponsored by Van Wyck Brooks Historic District in
Plainfield, where he initially lived, and he volunteered for many years for the
Muhlenberg Auxiliary at the gift shop at the former Muhlenberg Regional Medical
Center. Eventually, the gift shop became a part time job until Muhlenberg
closed in 2008. He was briefly President of the Muhlenberg Auxiliary in the
early 2000s.
After that, at the behest of his special friend Wendy Burney, then
president of the board, Harry joined the board of directors of the Plainfield
Symphony Society (PSO), where he was active until a leave of absence 6 months before
his death. Harry was on the Music Director Selection Committee in 2008-2009.
The result of the recommendation of that Committee was the selection of
Plainfield Symphony Orchestra's current virtuoso Music Director, Charles
Prince.
Harry also participated in PSO productions from time to time, narrating
Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" and Benjamin Britten's "Young
Person's Guide to the Orchestra". He was a fixture as a center aisle usher
at concerts and as a participant at all of the social events.
Harry continued his love of music and acting
in Plainfield by participating in productions by Act One Players and by acting
as substitute summer music director from time to time at First Unitarian
Society of Plainfield. He participated in many productions; however, the
production that captured the hearts and minds of Plainfield was "Driving
Miss Daisie", where he and his now deceased friend Sally Beckwith played
the lead roles. To quote the blog Plainfield
Today on August 8, 2016, "Plainfield has lost another icon." He
will be sorely missed.
Harry was predeceased by his parents Chester Lafayette and
Ollie (McConnell) Ailster, his sister Louise and his brothers Chester
Lafayette, Jr., William, James and Samuel. He was also predeceased by his
"adoptive sister" Janet Mercer
Freeman, her daughter Janetta and her son, Maurice. He is survived by several
nephews and by his "adoptive brother" Richard Freeman of Freehold and
by his beloved goddaughters to whom he was devoted, Viveca Freeman of Freehold
and Celeste Freeman Robinson and her husband Bill of Hatfield, PA.
He is also
survived by his special friends Wendy and Jasmine Burney and Mary Burgwinkle
and Greg Haworth of Plainfield, and by hosts of other friends.
Family and
friends are invited to attend a memorial service from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM on Thursday,
August 18, 2016 at Freeman's Funeral Home, 47 East Main Street, Freehold, NJ
07728.
In lieu of flowers please consider a memorial donation to the Plainfield
Symphony Orchestra, P.O. Box 5093, Plainfield, NJ 07061. To share photos, leave
a condolence, or find directions visit www.freemanfuneralhomes.com.