Sandra (Sandy) Johnson Van Hoven of Hingham, MA, died peacefully on Tuesday, January 7, 2020. Born in Newark, New Jersey, on April 1, 1939, she was the daughter of the late Avery Fischer and Nina Ryder Johnson. She was a graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon School and attended Bennington College. Sandy’s curious mind and interests in education, politics and the arts were qualities that she instilled in her children and everyone she touched.
Sandy enjoyed a productive career in community education and fundraising with the American Red Cross in northern New Jersey. Part of a research project by Dr. Terry Brazelton and Johnson & Johnson, she was responsible for implementing a pilot education program for parents of prenatal infants. As director of financial development, Sandy ran capital campaigns and initiated a number of special events for which she recruited some of her favorite major league sports players, but her signature event was the jazz festival. She was recruited and trained as a disaster relief officer by Red Cross National Headquarters and later named a development officer responsible for soliciting in-kind donations for national emergencies and an African famine assignment.
A dedicated worker and wonderful conversationalist, Sandy handled every situation with grace and her lively sense of humor. A longtime Mad River Glen skier, Sandy and her husband, the late John Emerson Van Hoven, honeymooned at the Mad River Barn. She was an intrepid sailor and navigator, a talented artist, lover of literature, jazz aficionado and true sports fan. A member of the Montclair Ski Club, National Ski Patrol, Nyack Boat Club and Corinthians. She was the devoted mother of Pamela Van Hoven Clark of Rowayton, CT, Tracy Brinkerhoff Van Hoven-Hoyt of Acton, MA, and John Avery “Jay” Van Hoven and his wife Leigh of Nantucket, MA, and loving grandmother of Avery Emerson Clark, Caitlin Ryder Clark, Noel Brinkerhoff Hoyt and Keziah Van Hoven Hoyt. Sandra was the dear sister of Susan Johnson of the Netherlands and Stephanie “Polly” Easton and her husband Tom of Colorado and Arizona.
A celebration of Sandy’s life will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 30, 2020, at the Tokeneke Club in Darien, CT. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent in Sandy’s name to either the Stark Mountain Foundation “Preserve Our Paradise” at Mad River Glen or to American Red Cross Disaster Relief.
