My dad

Eugene C. Pressler, Jr.

Born April 1, 1930
Died February 22, 2011

A native of Montgomery County, raised in Evansburg, near Collegeville, where he attended public schools and Ursinus College, he was Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Continental Bank. Beginning with the Bank in 1971, Pressler was formerly Manager of Employee Relations and Assistant Director of Personnel before becoming Director of Human Resources. He retired in October 1991 after serving twenty years with the Bank.

He served as a member of the Board of Directors at Foulkeways, a continuing care community of 400 residents in Gwynedd. He chaired the Pension and Personnel Committee and served as a member of the Executive Committee and Finance Committee. A longtime resident of Maple Glen, he co-chaired the Maple Glen Village Association and was a member and Director of the Maple Gen Business and Professional Association.

Pressler was a well-known amateur radio operator and former President of the North Penn and Delmont Radio Clubs and the Telford Area Repeater Association. He served as Assistant Director of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), and international association of radio amateurs based in Newington, CT, and formerly served as Assistant Section Manager of the League’s Eastern Pennsylvania Section. In 1996, Pressler was honored by the Atlantic Division of ARRL in being chosen as the recipient of its prestigious “Amateur of the Year” award for a “lifetime of service to amateur radio”. He served as Director Emeritus of the Area Repeater Coordination Council, Inc., the regional amateur radio repeater frequency coordinator for eastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, which he cofounded.

He was an active writer and frequent contributor of newspaper and magazine articles published by the American Radio Relay League’s QST magazine and the Administrative Management Society’s Management World. He authored a book published by the American Radio Relay League and wrote for other professional and avocational publications. For some years he was a regular contributor to the Montgomery Post and Today’s Post newspapers. For over fifteen years, he was the Editor of Continental Bank’s employee magazine, The MUSKET, and, in 1978, he won national recognition from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge as recipient of its coveted George Washington Medal for “outstanding journalism upholding American ideals”.

Pressler formerly served as President of the Administrative Management Society’s Montgomery County Chapter and he is a longtime member and Secretary of the Board of the National Kidney Foundation of the Delaware Valley. He served for many years as a member of the Advisory Boards of the Philadelphia Business Academy, the Philadelphia Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC), and the Pennsylvania Bankers Association’s Central Atlantic School of Banking at Bucknell University. He also served for several years as an Instructor in Personnel and Supervision for the American Institute of Banking and he was a speaker at several of the annual conferences of the Pennsylvania Bankers Association.

Since retiring, Pressler turned his attention to volunteering and he has been active with the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program of Montgomery County (RSVP) where he is a member and former Chairman of its board of Directors. He has done human resources consulting with non-profits for RSVP’s Volunteer Executive Consultants organization. He was a member and Elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Ambler.

He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Maripat Cope Pressler, a one-time bank officer herself, and his youngest daughter, Margaret Visher. He is survived by his daughter, Suzanne Roth, of Durham, NC; three grandchildren, Katie Harper, Timothy Visher, and Christina Visher; and three great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests donations in loving memory of Eugene and Maripat Pressler to the First Presbyterian Church of Ambler Organ Fund. The address is:

First Presbyterian Church of Ambler
Eugene and Maripat Pressler Organ Fund
4 Southridge Avenue
Ambler, Pennsylvania 19002

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And now for some very different news...

Dad left this world last night at 9:15 PM. Some three hours later, God in his grace brought his newest great-grandson, Noah, into the world. Please include Noah and his parents, Jesse and Katie, in your prayers, and share in my rejoicing for a joyful birth as well as a peaceful death.

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