HANOVER, NH — Madeline (Lin) Engleskjen Hartell Herndon of Hanover, New Hampshire, and formerly of New Castle, Delaware, passed away peacefully on November 29, 2019, at the age of 87.
Born in 1932 in New York City to her parents Eric Hartell, Sr. and Mary Seager Hartell, she lived a full life marked by family, friends and a deep appreciation for art, nature and humanity. Lin, along with her brother Eric Hartell, Jr., grew up in Chappaqua, New York, and spent summers with extended family at the Cape Pogue-side camp built by her grandfather, Samuel Seager, on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts.
She attended high school at the Oldfields School in Maryland and later secured her first job working at the Atlantic Monthly Press in Boston. With an interest in living abroad, she next worked for a governmental research firm, the Operations Research Office, in Heidelberg, Germany, and traveled extensively throughout Europe in the 1950s.
After returning to New York City, Lin worked for a public relations firm which happily counted the Jamaica Tourist Board as its client. While in New York, she met her future husband, Henry N. Herndon, Jr., who predeceases her, and they married in 1957. Lin and Henry subsequently moved to New Castle, Delaware, where they raised two children, Mary Brooke and Matthew.
While in Delaware, Lin returned to school as a second career student and earned her B.A. from Widener University and her M.S.W. from Bryn Mawr College. She then maintained a private practice as a therapist for years in Wilmington, Delaware.
Lin embraced her Scandinavian heritage and was renown for her culinary skills including her famous Christmas Eve Swedish smorgasbord. Her lifelong visits to Chappaquiddick imbued a deep appreciation for nature especially the ocean and its bounty including the clams she harvested barehanded and barefooted. Lin loved interior design and art which led to not infrequent furniture moving by her family and larger redecorating efforts. She cared deeply about the world from social causes to politics but most enjoyed conversations or a quip with friends or family often over a drink, dinner or a standing ice cream dessert.
She lived a rich and long life of purpose and passion. Lin is survived by her brother Eric Hartell, Jr. and sister-in-law Lynne K. Hartell of Chatham, Massachusetts; her daughter Brooke and son-in-law Eric Miller and their son Benjamin, all of Norwich, Vermont; and her son Matthew and daughter-in-law Kendall and their children Taylor and Luke, all of Cohasset, Massachusetts. A private celebratory dinner will be held in her honor this spring.