Gertrude Stark

Gertrude Morf Stark, age 84, a native of Zurich, Switzerland, resident of Roswell, GA, and former resident of 40 years of Mobile, AL, passed away Wednesday, March 23, 2011.

She was a graduate of The University of South Alabama and The University of Alabama, and had been a high school math and physics teacher, who taught at Grand Bay and Mary Montgomery High Schools during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Her passions were playing chamber music, travel, and hiking. She enjoyed playing viola da gamba, recorders, and keyboard instruments. Before Mobile, she lived in a variety of places, including Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, New York City, Spain, and England, after growing up in Switzerland. She worked as a translator in these places, having studied at the School of Translation and Interpretation at the University of Geneva.

Her husband, John Stark, who she met and married in Santo Domingo, died in 2004. She is survived by her children James Stark of Switzerland and Barbara Stark of Roswell, GA, her sister Annemarie Gerber of Switzerland, and 4 grandchildren. The family will receive friends 3:00 to 4:00 pm Monday, March 28, 2011 at Pine Crest Funeral Home in Mobile, AL, followed by a brief remembrance service. In lieu of flowers the family suggests donations be made to your favorite charity.

Byars Funeral Home & Cremation Services is in charge of the arrangements. (678) 455-5815.