Obituary of Melva Radcliffe

Radcliffe, Melva Mae (nee Cadmus), died on Friday August 31, 2012 at the age of 111. She was born March 3, 1901 in Paterson, NJ, the daughter of Wilmer and Ida Cadmus. Her father was a former Mayor of Paterson, President of the 2nd National Bank and Colonel in the U.S. Army, serving overseas in World War I. Melva was a graduate of Paterson State College where she also received her Master's degree. She taught Third Grade in Paterson School #13 for 45 years, educating more than 3000 students, most of whom she still remembered by name and even where they sat in her classroom. She married for the first time when she was almost 70 to James Radcliffe, a widower. After he died six years later, she married his brother, Hartley Radcliffe, at the age of 84. Hartley passed away in 1998. Her married years were happy, fun-filled years, traveling throughout the world to Europe, Asia, the Mediterranean and the Far East, enjoying friends and family. Melva Radcliffe was a truly remarkable woman, full of energy and a love of life till the day she died. She devoted the majority of her life to others as a teacher, and with her generosity to numerous individuals and her family. She was without a doubt "A national treasure who will be remembered and revered by all the thousands of people whose life she touched". At the age of 111 she was the oldest person in the State of New Jersey and one in only 86 people with recorded birth certificates to attest that age in the world. Melva had two sisters; Mildred Mirandon and Ruth Campana, and a brother Vernol Cadmus, who predeceased her, and is survived by her nephew, John V. Campana, Jr. and a niece, Joan Walther, two step-daughters, Susan Maddux, and Frances Shepperdson, a step-son, James Radcliffe, and numerous Grand and Great Grand nieces and nephews. Visiting Friday, September 7, 2012 from 9:30 -10:30 AM at the Vander Plaat Funeral Home, www.vpfh.com, 257 Godwin Ave. Wyckoff, NJ. A Funeral Service will follow at 10:30 AM at the funeral home. Interment Cedar Lawn Cemetery, Paterson, NJ. Memorial contributions in Melva's name may be made to William Paterson University Foundation, Inc., 300 Pompton Avenue, Wayne, NJ 07470.