Angela Preston, 81, a summer resident of South Bristol for more than 50 years, died peacefully at Cove’s Edge in Damariscotta on Sept. 21. Angela, nee Camurati, was the first three daughters born to Marco Camurati (a cabinet-maker) and Rose Quarello Camurati (a translator) in New York City. Her parents, both from the Piemonte region of northern Italy, came to New York in 1919, and her Italian heritage was always a source of pride to Angela.
Born June 25, 1930, Angela was valedictorian of her high school class in the Corona section of Queens, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry summa cum laude from Queen’s College (CUNY) in 1951. She began her PhD in chemistry at Pennsylvania State University in the same year. While working as a research assistant on the cloud chamber at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, she met her future husband Richard S. Preston, a doctoral candidate in physics at Yale University. They were married in New York City July 25, 1954, and lived in New Haven, Conn. for two years before relocating to the Chicago area in 1956, where her husband had been appointed a research physicist at the Argonne National Laboratory.
For the next 12 years she raised her children and began training as a teacher. She spent two years in England in the mid-1960s when her husband was a visiting physicist at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, near Oxford. Returning to the states in 1967, she earned a Master’s degree in education and biology from Northern Illinois University, and taught high school math and sciences at several schools in suburban Chicago.
In 1977, she accompanied her husband to West Germany for two years where he was engaged in research at the University of the Saarland in Saarbrucken. On her return to the states in 1979 she began a new career as a technical editor for software development at the Bell Laboratories (AT&T) in Naperville, Ill. She retired in 1997. Angela moved with Richard to Maine in 2000, thereafter dividing her time between Brunswick, Damariscotta and the venerable family home in South Bristol. She was, like her husband, an avid sailor, and was passionate about chamber music, literature, needlepoint, good grammar, and politics. Her favorite expression in humorous moments of mild impatience or exasperation was “O che barba!”, an Italian family saying which means “Oh what a (long) beard!”
Angela was predeceased by her husband, Richard Swain Preston; and sister, Claire Klein of Apalachin, N.Y.
She is survived by her sister, Louise Poletti of Mohnton, Penn.; daughter, Claire Preston of Cambridge, England and South Bristol; son, Mark Preston of South Bristol; grandchildren, Julianna Preston and Patrick Preston of South Bristol; nieces, Beth Preston of Nobleboro, Carol Preston of Damariscotta, Louise Mendsen of Vestal, N.Y.; and nephews, Steve Poletti of Leesport, Penn., Doug Poletti of Key Largo, Fla., Bob Klein of Apalachin, N.Y., Dan Preston of St. Cloud, Minn. and Joel Preston of Bloomfield, Minn.
There will be no funeral service.
Those wishing to do so may make a contribution in her memory to the Damariscotta River Association, PO Box 333, Damariscotta, ME 04543, which she supported substantially during her lifetime.
Arrangements are under the direction and care of the Strong-Hancock Funeral Home, 612 Main St., Damariscotta.
