Gloria Pelter

Gloria A. Pelter, 76 of Vestal passed away in the early morning of September 23. She was predeceased by her parents, Sam and Rae Adelman; brother-in-law and sister-in-law Morris and Anne Pelter; and nephew Richard Pelter. She is survived by her loving husband of 53 years, Stanley Pelter; son Michael Pelter of Vestal; son Brian Pelter of Brooklyn; son David Pelter (Patricia) and two grandchildren, Samantha Pelter and Max Pelter, of Mercer Island, WA; brother Philip Adelman (Ruth) of Stamford, CT; brother Stanley Adelman (Patricia) of Charlotte, NC; nephew Lance Pelter (Maureen) of Potomac, MD; niece Jill Shiner (Kenneth) of Oak Park, IL; nephew Frank Adelman (Lori) of Darien, CT; nephew William Adelman of Trumbull, CT; niece Jenny Adelman of Brooklyn; nephew Robert Adelman of Tempe, AZ; eight grandnieces and grandnephews. She was born in Brooklyn and raised in Weehawken, NJ, in an arts-loving home. After she received a bachelor’s degree from Temple University in 1959, she taught English to pupils that included the first boatloads of Cuban refugees at her high school alma mater in Union City, NJ; that same year, she accepted a rowboat ride at a Pocono resort from someone she met named Stan; they married the next summer. After taking time off to raise a family, she returned to the workforce in the late 1970s as a substitute reading and English teacher for the Vestal Central School District. In 1979, after receiving a master’s degree from Binghamton University, she began teaching reading to junior high school students in Deposit and remained in that role until retirement 24 years later. She passed her parents’ love of the arts down to her own children, and she sang alto for the barbershop quartet Pipe Dreams. For many years, she wrote and held other responsibilities for the local Jewish Federation’s weekly Reporter newspaper. For the last few years, she handled publicity for Binghamton University’s Lyceum organization. One year ago, she expanded the one-woman play she wrote for a Lyceum class about the life of Frances Perkins, labor secretary to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, into a Temple Concord Sisterhood luncheon program with a larger cast, and just last month this program won an international silver medal. She and Stan traveled all corners of the globe, but they most looked forward to making the next trip to the West Coast to visit their two grandchildren, whom they adored. She was a loving wife, mother and grandmother who always looked for and found the positive side of all she met. She will be remembered for her warmth, graciousness, talent, unpretentiousness, sense of fun, sense of purpose and the inspiring combination of bravery, patience and politeness she managed to exhibit every day over the past several months. Visitation will be on Wednesday, September 25, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and a funeral will start at 12:00 p.m. at Temple Concord, 9 Riverside Drive, Binghamton. Interment will follow at Westlawn Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Temple Concord or a charity of your choice.