Judith G. Geissele, M.D.

Judith Gizella "Judy" Geissele-Urai, MD, 82, of Waterford Works, went on to her heavenly reward on May 5, 2009 at Virtua Hospital, Marlton, after a lengthy illness.
Born Judith Ungar on April 15, 1927 in Budapest, Hungary, Judy lived in the Winslow Township area for over 45 years. Her parents, Alfred Ungar and Ilona Klein were born Jewish and converted to Christianity before Judy was born. Despite their Catholic faith, Alfred was killed in the Holocaust at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. At age 16, Judy escaped from a death march to the camp at Auschwitz, returning to live with her mother and sister in Budapest after WWII. There, she received her medical degree from Pazmany Peter University, where she completed her internship and residency in Otolaryngology (ENT Surgery). After serving in the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, she immigrated to the United States in 1957, where she practiced medicine in various locations, including northern New Jersey, Massachusetts, and later southern New Jersey, where she moved in 1963. Locally, she served on the staff of various medical facilities, including Ancora State Hospital, and AtlantiCare Behavioral Health, retiring from active medical practice in 2004, at the age of 77.
Judy enjoyed several hobbies, but her favorites were her love of plants, hunting wild mushrooms, and needlework of all types. She was a brilliant needlework artist, with the unique ability to visualize a design in her mind or from a picture and replicate it, without a pattern, via knitting, embroidery, and particularly crochet. Her skills were recognized recently in a local display at the Winslow Township Library.
Although a devout Catholic, she maintained her connection to her family's Jewish heritage. She was a Holocaust speaker for a local Jewish Community Center, and was chosen to have her family's Holocaust story permanently memorialized in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum through a series of video interviews.
After moving to south Jersey, she married the late William J. Geissele in 1964 at St. Lucy's Church, Blue Anchor, where she was a longtime member and contributor to the parish as a CCD teacher, lector, and occasionally even as a cantor. Besides her loving and devoted husband Bill, she was preceded in death by her mother Ilona and sister Georgina, both of Sydney, Australia, and her father, Alfred, of Budapest.
She is survived by her three children, sons Alfred Geissele, MD and wife Marie of Hickory, NC, William H. Geissele and wife Amy, of Norristown, PA, and daughter Gigi Geissele Kelly and husband Dan Kelly, of Mt. Laurel, NJ; grandchildren Lauren Geissele, Melissa Bideau, and Dalton Hudson, of North Carolina, Jacob, Liam, and Ryanne Kelly, of Mt. Laurel, and Abraham and Faith Geissele, of Norristown.
Her final days were made comfortable and dignified by the staff at CareOne at Moorestown, the nurses and staff of the ICU and 4 South at Virtua West Jersey Hospital Marlton. The family wishes to extend special thanks to Drs. Carlos Madamba and Richard Greenberg, from the Center for Cancer and Hematologic Disease, and in particular for the thorough, kind, and compassionate care of Dr. John Bermingham, from Advanced Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine (Voorhees).
Arrangements were entrusted to Marinella Funeral Home, 102 N Third St, Hammonton, NJ, ( www.marinellafuneralhome.com) where viewing will be held Thursday May 7, 2009 from 630-9 PM. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday May 8, 2009 at 11 AM at St. Lucy's Church, 250 South Route 73, Blue Anchor, NJ 08037.
Entombment will be at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery following Mass.Memorial donations may be made to: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Donor Services P.O. Box 4072 Pittsfield, MA 01202 (www.leukemia-lymphoma.org) or New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education PO Box 500 Trenton, NJ 08625.

Mass of Christian Burial

Friday, May 8, 2009
Blessed John XXIII Parish- St. Lucy Church 250 S. Rt. 73 Blue Anchor, New Jersey, United States 08037

Interment at: Holy Sepulchre Cemetery

Friday, May 8, 2009
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery 124 S. Chew Road Hammonton, New Jersey, United States 08037