Hanne Bertha Ansell

Hanne Ansell (née Baer) died peacefully on Friday, December 20 at Mt. San Antonio Gardens in Pomona. She was 95 years old and spent most of the last six decades as an active member of the Claremont community.

Born February 8, 1929, Hanne was the eldest child of Richard and Anne Baer and first lived in Bruchsal, Germany, a town where her family’s ancestry traces back to the 17th century. Younger brother Martin was born in 1930. As a prosperous Jewish family, the Baers were forced to leave Germany in 1933 following Hitler’s rise to power. They lived in Switzerland until 1941, when they came to the US and settled in the Riverdale section of the Bronx in New York City.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College, Hanne began her career as an administrative assistant — first at the Institute for International Education in New York and later at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, during the directorship of the now famous J. Robert Oppenheimer (when asked after the Oppenheimer movie came out, she said she didn’t remember him but did remember seeing his children play nearby).

In April 1956, Hanne was set up by her cousin on a blind date with attorney Edward Ansell in Princeton, New Jersey. The two were engaged within weeks and married on December 23 of that year. Shortly after welcoming their daughter, Deborah, in 1958, the couple moved to Southern California for Ed to take a job at Aerojet-General. They settled first in Glendora before moving to Claremont in 1960. They welcomed their son, William, in 1961. Except for a brief stint living in La Jolla, Hanne and Ed lived in Claremont ever since. 

Hanne continued to work as an administrative assistant until 1989, most notably as an assistant to two Deans of Pomona College. She also sold classified ads at The Claremont Courier and was an active volunteer for the Claremont League of Women Voters, Planned Parenthood, and held several PFA leadership positions at El Roble Intermediate School and Claremont High School. She also supported her husband’s many, many hobbies, including showing their Mexican-American champion Rottweilers and American champion Schnauzer.

Hanne and Ed moved to the retirement community Mt. San Antonio Gardens in 2003, but neither of them were particularly good at being retired. Hanne continued to work after her formal retirement as Ed’s paralegal until he finally let them retire for good when he was 84 and she was 81. Hanne was also an active community member, serving on the Gardens’ Board of Directors, CEO Search committee, package committee, scholarship education committee, and community newspaper The Green Leaf. She also supported Ed’s volunteer efforts — he selected movies to be played on the Gardens’ TV channel on Saturday nights — by creating promotional posters. 

Outside of work, Hanne was an excellent yet imprecise cook with a fondness for butter. She enjoyed having rose bushes and citrus trees, and made fresh-squeezed orange juice for her husband every day with his breakfast. She loved being part of a book club and played a mean game of Bridge up until the end (once she started losing her vision, she could quickly memorize her hand and still win most of the time). Most of all, she was a doting mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. 

She is survived and missed dearly by her children Debbie (David) Herman of Skillman, New Jersey and Bill Ansell of Upland, her granddaughters Annie (Philip) Lux of St. Louis, Missouri and Emily Herman of Fort Collins, Colorado, her great-granddaughter Avery Lux, her sister-in-law Phyllis Harris of Golden Valley, Minnesota, and numerous nieces and nephews. Hanne is predeceased by her husband, Edward Ansell, and her brother, Martin Baer.

In lieu of flowers, the family invites donations in Hanne’s name to the Leo Baeck Institute, an organization dedicated to preserving the history of German Jewry. The institute holds the collection of Baer family records. https://www.lbi.org/support/