Obituary of Guilford Harrison Bartlett

Guilford Harrison Bartlett, Jr., known as "Gil" to his friends and family, passed away on the morning of March 11, 2018 in Sweet Valley, Pennsylvania. He was 81 years old. Gil was born in Richmond, Virginia, and grew up in southern Florida. As a young man, he lived on a sailboat in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and earned his living as a schoolteacher, which would become his lifelong profession. In the early 1960s, Gil enrolled at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he received his doctorate in science education. While completing his studies, he traveled to London, bought a motorcycle, rode across Europe, and wrote his dissertation in a beach town in Spain. After receiving his doctorate, he taught seventh- and eighth-grade science at the Fleming School in New York City. After the Fleming School closed in the early 1990s, he taught high-school science at the Browning School, also in New York City. After his retirement in 1995, Gil became an avid gardener and maintained a raspberry patch that he harvested for his famous jam. He was a man of various passions: tennis, sailing, bookbinding, reading books in the Harvard Classics series, home repair, and refurbishing antique canoes. His greatest passions, perhaps, were his two retired racing greyhounds, the late Spider and Tiger. Gil is survived by his wife, Janice Nadine Bronson, who was at his bedside when he passed away at 6:11 Monday morning. Gil and Jan met at Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1962. Their friendship began there and developed into a 56-year partnership and marriage. In the 1960s, they were among the founders of the Block Association on West 69th Street in Manhattan. They resided in Manhattan, but spent half their time in Sweet Valley after purchasing Jan's childhood home—formerly, the Bronson Funeral Home. Between Manhattan and Sweet Valley, Gil and Jan raised their two children: daughter Deana West, married to Jeff West and mother of Ella, Ava, and Camille West; and son Blake Bronson-Bartlett, married to Alice Gribbin. Gil is also survived by his youngest sister Evelyn Maige; his brother Dick and sister-in- law Mary Bartlett; and his sister- and brother-in-law, Sandy and Dean Bronson. Gil's wishes were to have a private funeral and burial at the convenience of the family. Arrangements were by the Curtis L. Swanson Funeral Home, Pikes Creek. Memorial donation may be made to the Sweet Valley Fire Company or the Sweet Valley Ambulance Association, 5383 Main Rd, Sweet Valley, PA 18656.