Obituary of Herbert L Sloss

Herbert L. Sloss, 93, a nearly life-long resident of Basking Ridge, died Saturday, Sept. 27, at the Fort Washington Estates retirement community in Fort Washington, Pa., to which he had moved in January 2013. Born in Newark on Nov. 9, 1920, Mr. Sloss was the son of the late William H. Sloss and Elsie Wright Sloss. The family moved to Bernards Township, his mother's home area, when he was a small boy. He loved to tell stories of roaming back yards and byways with his two brothers, Wally and Doug, at a time when Basking Ridge was still very much a small town on the edge of the Great Swamp. Mr. Sloss attended Maple Avenue School and graduated in 1939 from Bernards High, where he was a miler on the track team and played the trombone in the band. In later decades, he helped organize class reunions. When World War II broke out, Mr. Sloss entered the Army. He worked as a dental technician and attained the rank of Tec 5, equivalent to corporal. For 13 months, he served in India with the 142nd Field Hospital as part of U.S. military efforts to defend the China-Burma-India Theater. For the rest of his life, he was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. After the war, Mr. Sloss met his wife-to-be, Louise Velletri, of Bernardsville, on a New Year's Eve blind date. They were married on Sept. 5, 1948, and recently celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary. Above all else, Mr. Sloss was a family man. He raised three daughters and a son, all of whom graduated from Ridge High School. A milkman for 32 years, he had to get up several hours before dawn to go to work. But he never missed attending any of his children's band concerts, school musicals and sporting events. He found a way for a summer vacation at the Shore, and sent his children to college. In evenings and on weekends in the early 1950s, he worked with his wife's uncle, a carpenter, to build his own three-bedroom house on a corner lot at West Oak Street and South Alward Avenue. He resided there for almost 60 years. Mr. Sloss was a charter member of First Presbyterian Church of Bernardsville in 1958. He was on the building committee, and served the church as an elder, trustee and Sunday school teacher. After retiring from the Johanna Farms dairy, he worked part-time for many years at the Bernardsville News and at the Gallaway and Crane Funeral Home in Basking Ridge. This work gave him the chance to do one of his favorite things: engage all manner of people in amiable conversation. Besides his wife, of Fort Washington, and his brother Doug, of Basking Ridge, Mr. Sloss is survived by his four adult children: Gail Infield (Tom) of Wayne, Pa.; Joan Sheets (L.G.) of Buladean, N.C.; Gary Sloss (Jean) of Rural Hall, N.C., and Laura Thompson (Pete), of Chalfont, Pa. He is also survived by eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Visitation will be held on Thursday, October 2, 2014 at Gallaway and Crane Funeral Home, 101 S. Finley Ave, Basking Ridge, NJ from 9:30 – 10:30 am. Funeral Service will be held on Thursday, October 2, 2014, 11:00 am, at The First Presbyterian Church of Bernardsville, 321 Mine Brook Rd, Bernardsville, NJ. Interment will follow at The Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church Cemetery. For further information please contact Gallaway and Crane Funeral Home at 908-766-0250, or to light an online condolence candle please visit our website at www.gcfuneralhome.com.