Katherine Schwenker, 87, died peacefully at home on Thursday, April 29, 2010, in Belle Mead, NJ, after a long, productive life. Born in New York City, she grew up in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

She studied ballet for many years at the dance department of the National Academy of Stage Training, performing at events in Washington, D.C., held at the Willard and Mayflower Hotels and the National Theatre; she later studied with Ernest Carlos in New York. She also performed for the USO during WWII. She was a Virginia debutante. A graduate of Mary Washington College, she went on to work for the United States War Department as a cryptographer prior to her marriage in 1943 to Robert F. Schwenker, who died in 1992. After the war, she moved with her husband to Philadelphia where he studied at the University of Pennsylvania; they later moved to the Princeton area in 1948.

During the years when she devoted herself to raising a family, she undertook various volunteer efforts: she was a founder of Princeton's Youth Employment Service which operated for over 25 years, providing jobs and experience to youth and support to local households and businesses; a trustee of the Van Harlingen Historical Society, advisor to the Planning Board in Montgomery Township, member of the Montgomery Bicentennial Committee, and a founding member of the Montgomery Women's Club; a volunteer for the Boy Scouts and the American Red Cross; and she was active with the PTA and provided ongoing support to the local school system from teaching to helping with whatever service was needed. She was a longtime parishioner at St. Paul's RC Church in Princeton and later at St. Charles Borromeo RC Church in Skillman, where she was a charter member of the church's Women's Club and a Eucharistic minister to the homebound.

Katherine is predeceased by her brother Joseph Resch and her sister Anne Zaleski. She is survived by two sons and daughters-in-law, Robert and Kathy Schwenker of Fresno, CA, and Erich and Judy Schwenker of Milwaukee, WI; two daughters, Elsa Schwenker of Phoenix, AZ, and Gretchen Schwenker of Belle Mead, NJ; five grandchildren; her brother and sister-in-law John and Jacqueline Resch of Virginia Beach, VA; brother-in-law Eric Schwenker of Evansville, IN; sister-in-law Ginny Resch of Conway, SC; and many nieces and nephews.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. Charles Borromeo RC Church, 47 Skillman Road, Skillman, NJ, 08558, on Monday, May 3, at 10:00AM. Burial will be with her husband in Rocky Hill Cemetery, Rocky Hill, NJ.