Ingrid F. (Sander) James, 77, of State College, died Sunday, May 13, 2012, at home. Born Nov. 24, 1934 , in Goettingen , Germany , she was a daughter of the late Walter E. Sander and Emma M. (Bornemann) Sander. She moved to the U.S. in 1958, and had lived in State College since 1965. She worked as the head secretary in the Math and Statistics Department at Penn State University, where she met her future husband, Donald G. James. The couple were married in December, 1967. Ingrid graduated from Penn State University with a B.A. in German Literature and then worked at Penn State as a Part-Time Librarian until retirement in 2000. She loved traveling; in fact, she had been to all seven continents and seen all seven of the New Wonders of the world. Ingrid enjoyed her daily life in State College where she took many walks, visited with townsfolk, and frequented thrift shops. Two other items of interest are: in 1944 while on a school outing in Germany she was strafed by an allied warplane, and at age 18 she spent a year as an "au pair" girl in Palermo, Sicily working for the family of a Russian Count, partly to speak German with the two children. She is survived by husband, Donald G. James, of State College; son Michael A. James "Alex" and wife Suzanne of Pittsburgh; two grandchildren, Kiera and Michael James; sister, Eleanore Knop (wife of Klaus Knop) of Germany; sister-in-law, Betty Sander, (widow of Manfred H. Sander d. 1981) of Princeton, MA; brother-in-law, Brian James, of New Zealand; and several nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews.
Committal of ashes will be in the All Faiths Cemetery, Worcester, MA on June 16, 2012, at 2 pm.
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