In Memoriam

Sigrid Leube Snell
1927-2025

Haworth, NJ—Sigrid Leube Snell died peacefully on June 24, 2025 at her Haworth, New Jersey home, where she had lived since 1954.

Born in Stuttgart, Germany on January 1, 1927, she was the fourth child of Clara Kuntze and Maximilian Leube, who was physician in charge at a prominent Stuttgart hospital.

In 1948, after attending Heidelberg University for two years, Sigrid was among the very first German students to receive a scholarship to study in the U.S. post-World War II. She received an A.B. degree (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Stanford University in 1950, after which she pursued graduate study in Spanish at Middlebury College and then earned an M.A. and completed much of the work toward a doctorate in international relations from New York University.

A gifted amateur pianist, violinist, and violist, Sigrid loved music, playing for decades with a host of orchestras and ensembles in northern New Jersey, most notably the Bergen Philharmonic and the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra, of which she also served as president during the 1970s. She cherished chamber music sessions with friends and family, both in New Jersey and in the area surrounding her summer home in Cooperstown, New York. Other lifelong passions included sketching and painting, in which she cultivated a prodigious talent by developing her distinctive economical style. She also was a member of the Haworth School Board for several years, including a term as president, and she enjoyed writing lengthy informative letters and working on German-English translations for private clients.

Together with George Snell, her husband of 64 years (who predeceased her in 2016), she raised two children, Andrea Snell of Ridgewood, New Jersey (who died in 2016) and Dietrich Snell of Manhattan (who survives her). She also is survived by her son-in-law, John Workman, and her daughter-in-law, Nina Dastur, as well as four grandchildren: Julia Workman, Marcus Workman, Jack Snell and Alixandra Snell. Sigrid’s sister, Helga Bretschneider of Goettingen, Germany, survives her as well. Her other siblings, half-sisters Margarethe Leube and Irmgard von Keisenberg, half-brother Dietrich, and brother and sister Eberhard and Gisela, all predeceased her.

The memorial will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations to the Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative; the Otsego Land Trust; the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival; and the Snell-Zimmerman-Timmerman Reunion.