Ann Fries

FRIES, Ann Lea, succumbed to lung cancer on Nov. 1, 2017, in Savannah, Georgia after successfully holding various cancers at bay for 13 years. Her doctors at Savannah’s Memorial Health, and Duke’s Raleigh-Durham Cancer Center supported her efforts with persistent and innovative treatments that unquestionably extended her life for many happy and meaningful years. She entered the Hospice Program in Savannah in early October, but remained at home until the day of her death. She was born Sept. 29th, 1940 in Princeton, NJ and is survived by her husband, Russell Fries, her brother, Tom Lea, two daughters, Lea-Lea Marshall and Lynne Erdman O’Donnell, two step children, Tom and Gwyneth Fries, and six grand-children, with many cousins, nieces and nephews. Many of them were with her on her 77th birthday shortly before she died. She was pre-deceased by her mother, Nancy Nalle Lea of Charlotte, NC, her father, Gilbert Lea, All-American football player and officer in the Motorized Artillery of General Patton during WWII, and a brother, Biff Lea. Ann was an occasional summer visitor to Nova Scotia for many years, and met her husband, Russell Fries, here in late summer, 1992 while visiting friends who own a cottage in Smith’s Cove. This chance encounter with Russell produced a short court-ship (they married in December), and a subsequent 25-year marriage. Her first marriage had ended in divorce some 20 years earlier, but her second led to long visits to Nova Scotia where she and Russell shared the house he had built in 1970, which she enhanced with a new personal kitchen design and delicious fish and other recipes. Ann brought a warm heart, strong financial accomplishments, significant culinary skills and two adult children to the marriage. Russell brought two teen-age children and was proud to make Ann a part of the Shenstone family in Canada that loved and supported her. Ann and Russell often spent Christmas or Thanksgiving with relatives in Ottawa or more recently, Toronto where most of the Shenstone family now resides. Nova Scotia became a place Ann loved, both for the family she found here and the food and friends she made. From Organic Maple Syrup to Natural or Organic meat and fresh-caught fish she believed that the healthy food sources here supported her in her struggle with cancer, as well as being nutritious and delicious. She made many friends here, from Sugar-bush operators, to local artists or research scientists, and was always ready to try a new recipe on visitors, whether local or from out-of-town. Ann contributed much to her adopted home here, whether serving coffee and taking donations at Smith’s Cove Music Nights along with Russell for the benefit of the Smith’s Cove Historical Society, or advising the staff at the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute (MTRI) based on her years of experience in securing grants and managing budgets with science-based organizations. Ann had to create her own career after her divorce from her first husband, starting with an Associates’ degree from the local community college in Accounting. She moved through several companies in the Princeton area, each more demanding than the last, including work with a firm that ran a large venture capital fund. Her last major employer was Liberty Science Center in New Jersey, a $45 million science museum where she held positions including Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer through Director of Operations with a staff of 300, and, when the current Director resigned, Acting Director while the Board conducted a search. To all her companies and institutions, she brought the same enthusiastic participation in examining the changing world, and how to understand it. Most of all she brought an up-beat and enthusiastic engagement with people and institutions that worked for good, including Planned Parenthood, Georgia Public Broadcasting, the Savannah Children’s Choir and the Savannah Music Festival as well as summer work with MTRI and the Smith’s Cove Historical Society in Nova Scotia. She had experience in her own life of being told that “girls don’t really need physics” and that college degrees were not necessary if you had a husband, so she was militant about finding meaningful careers for women in demanding professions. For her service she received the Savannah Children’s Choir’s “One Small Voice” Award posthumously for distinguished financial advisory assistance to the Choir. Contributions in her name may be made to either MTRI or the Smith’s Cove Historical Society. A celebration of her life will be held in the Smith’s Cove Birch Chapel on Saturday, August 11 at 2:00 PM with a reception to follow. A private burial is planned. Part of her will always remain attached to Nova Scotia supporting the beauty of the land and water, and the warmth of the people inhabiting it. She always fought the good fight, and the victory of life is hers everlastingly.