Charles Warren Sens
OCEAN CITY — Charles Warren Sens, passed away on Oct. 23, 2013 at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury at the age of 91.
He was born on March 4, 1922 in Washington, DC. He was married to Lois K. Sens (Keeler) in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 25, 1946. They were married 67 years.
Mr. Sens spent 1 ½ years in the National Guard in Iceland training as an anti-tank gunner and expert M-1 rifleman. He joined United States Army January, 1941, serving in WWII as a Staff Sergeant , Battery E, 80th Airborne Anti Aircraft Battalion, 82nd Division in the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he returned to Washington, D.C. and began working as an apprentice for family business, Krick Plumbing Business of Washington, D.C. and received a Master’s Plumbing and Heating License. In 1952, he moved his family temporarily to Ocean City to be the mechanical contractor of Stephen Decatur High School as well as several hospitals on the eastern shore. He later founded Sens Mechanical which remains in operation.
He decided to make the bucolic eastern shore the home for his family as he never got the “sand out of his shoes”. He loved to swim, fish and hunt. He enjoyed reading, discussing politics, religion and world events. He was active as a Jehovah’s Witness after moving to the eastern shore and held fast to the belief of everlasting life in a paradise and shared this hope with everyone in his ministry work throughout the community.
He is survived by his wife, Lois K. Sens, and children, C. Warren Sens, Jr. of Hergiswil, Switzerland, Mark A. Sens, Paul N. Sens and his wife Annette, Roy D. Sens and his wife Melanie, all of Ocean City, and Eloise K. Sens, of Alexandria, Va. There are 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Also surviving are two brothers, Guy Sens of Stafford, Va. and Bernard Sens of Florida, and two sisters, Edna Hahn of Landsdown, Md. and Bobbie Simmons of Florida, numerous nieces and nephews, and a host of friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, Jack Sens and Elsie Sens, and brother, John Sens and his beloved daughter, Pamela M. Stout (Sens).
A memorial service will be held on Nov. 16, 2013 at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witness in Berlin at 2 p.m. Steve L. Martin will officiate. A graveside service at Arlington Cemetery will be announced at a later date.
Arrangements are in the care of the Burbage Funeral Home in Berlin. Expressions of sympathy may be sent to the family at www.burbagefuneralhome.com.
Winifred Lynch Coughlin
BERLIN — Winifred Lynch Coughlin, a Baltimore native, died of complications of Alzheimers on Oct. 29 in Chatham, N.J.
Formerly a resident of Ednor Gardens and Homeland, Coughlin was 89.
Coughlin was a graduate of the Institute of Notre Dame, where she served as president of her senior class, and attended the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Referred to in her IND yearbook as “winsome, witty Winnie,” Coughlin had a lifelong love of learning. Honored to have received a partial scholarship from the College, she was crushed to learn that her family could not afford the remaining tuition. When a colleague of her mother’s paid the remaining part of the tuition, this gave Coughlin a lesson she never forgot.
When she later returned to the donor with an offer to repay him, he asked instead that she pay it forward to help others. In subsequent years, Winnie and her husband established several scholarships to do just that. She was thrilled over the years to receive letters from students who were the recipients of these scholarships.
Coughlin interrupted her college education when she married Patrick J. Coughlin Jr. in October 1944. The couple immediately left Baltimore for California so Mr. Coughlin could serve in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II. With her husband still deployed, Coughlin returned to Baltimore in 1945 to have the first of her six children. She was proud to boast that she could claim the distinction of being both among the youngest and oldest mothers, as she had six children over a 20-year period.
Coughlin retained deep ties to the College of Notre Dame — she returned for classes after a 40-year hiatus rearing her children and she served as a Trustee Associate.
On the occasion of her 85th birthday, Coughlin was awarded The President’s Medal in recognition to her lifetime of service and commitment to the mission of College of Notre Dame. At the time, Notre Dame’s President, Mary Pat Seurkamp, described Winnie as representing “the very best of what a Notre Dame education provides—learning, leadership and service to others.”
Coughlin enjoyed the travel she and her husband undertook over the years. She truly loved spending many summers at her home in Ocean City, Maryland and in later years enjoying beach vacations with her children and grandchildren. To her, the beach embodied beauty and a great peacefulness. She was a former member of the Baltimore Country Club and Country Club of Maryland.
She is survived by three children, Sean Coughlin, of Berlin, Eileen Bress of New Bern, N.C. and Meaghan Williams of San Antonio, Texas and six grandchildren, Colleen Herron of Chicago, Brendan Herron of San Francisco, Caitlin Herron of New York, N.Y., Katie Thompson of Chapel Hill, N.C., Ryan and Claire Williams of San Antonio, Texas. She was predeceased by her husband of 55 years, Patrick J. Coughlin Jr., and by three children, Patrick J. Coughlin III, Barbara C. Herron and Colleen Coughlin.
Services were held at the Blessed Sacrament Church, 4103 Old York Road, Baltimore, where Coughlin attended grammar school. Interment was in St. Mary’s Cemetary.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to either the Colleen Marie Coughlin Scholarship at the Notre Dame of Maryland University or to the Winifred and Patrick Coughlin Scholarship at Loyola University Maryland.