Gale Scholes (Scholes) Siess

Gale Scholes Siess (1941-2025)

Gale Scholes Siess passed away on February 14, 2025 at St. Luke’s Hospital in Quakertown, PA with family at her side. She was surrounded by love and connection with family both in person and by phone, and frequent music and song, for the days leading up to her passing. She waited until Valentine’s Day had begun for her earthly family to say goodbye, before she joined her valentine Al in the next life, her beloved husband of 57 years.

Gale lived her life as an example of unwavering kindness, self-sacrifice and generosity of spirit to everyone she knew and loved, and through her work building peace and community; this salient aspect of her personality was extended to many she never met.

She was born on the first day of spring in Port Washington, NY in 1941 to Addison Scholes, Sr. and Virginia Scholes, the eldest of three children including her brother Addison, Jr and sister Jane. Gale and her family lived in a few places during her childhood; the longest stretches were in Warren, PA and Alfred, NY (including a close family connection to the village and to Alfred University starting with her grandparents and continuing with her parents and uncles and aunt, her younger son, and her older granddaughter, a current AU student).

Gale always loved music and poetry, ice skating, and spending time in and helping to protect nature–where she felt a profound and spiritual connection. She wrote well and often, and usually included original poetry or art in her cards and letters to family.

Gale attended Allegheny College where she majored in German, spent a year abroad living in Tübingen–where among other things she found a love of gliding, and would spend hours doing chores for a farmer in exchange for a ride up the mountain so she could soar in a tiny glider airplane. She went on to get her masters in German through Middlebury College including a year in Mainz, Germany. Her thesis focused on the poetry of the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. She also loved the poetry of Robert Frost, and at least once got to be part of a small group of students who he read his poetry to while on a walk in the countryside when Frost was artist-in-residence at Middlebury.

Gale married Alfred Siess in 1966, and they settled on a beautiful wooded property in Upper Saucon Township in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania to raise their family. They built a modern addition using reclaimed post and beam timbers onto the original, 250 year-old stone farmhouse and early 20th century addition. They lived together on their beloved property until his passing a little over a year before her, and she continued to live at home until her last week.

Gale’s first career was teaching German at Raub Middle School in Allentown, PA. She taught for a few years before focusing on her role as a devoted at-home mother to her two sons Matt and Dan. She was always there for them, and shared her love of reading, poetry, and music—she frequently drove them to rehearsals for choir and musical productions. She also passed along her love and knowledge of organic gardening and cooking with natural foods, and she and her husband took the boys on camping adventures and other vacations, including a very memorable several-week trip out west.

Gale’s second professional career was in the non-profit sector, where she worked for peace and social justice and education. She directed Action for Nuclear Disarmament and canvassed door-to-door during the nuclear freeze era in the early ’80s. She and her sister Jane, and a bunch of family and friends, also produced and recorded a multi-generational musical audio recording called “2-4-1: Two Leaders for One World” which featured original art by Keith Haring on the cover and sent strong wishes and support for peace and agreement to the historic 1986 Summit between Reagan and Gorbachev. She also founded the non-profit Interfaith Peace Resource Center, and led the mediation organization, Face to Face Center for Multicultural Dialogue. Her last professional role before her retirement was directing a mentoring program for at-risk teens through Communities in Schools of Eastern Pennsylvania. She helped shape a lot of young lives, matching youths with much-needed adult mentors from the community.

Through her professional work but also at home, Gale taught her children to be open to other cultures and beliefs, and exposed them to different people and ways of thinking. The family frequently hosted exchange students and visiting adults from throughout the world, and she made the difficult decision to allow her 12 and (just turned) 9 year-old sons to travel to Japan without their parents for five weeks with a boys’ choir–an amazing musical and cultural experience that shaped their lives immeasurably.

She also led the family in deciding to foster three Vietnamese boys, Trung, Son and Dang (Angus), who spoke no English, and who had narrowly escaped a desperate life and needed a fresh start. Gale and her family gave them a home and this fresh start, and helped them learn English and understand a new culture in the US for a couple of years until their adult sister was able to take them in and continue to provide for them in the US. Gale taught English as a Second Language (ESL) to adult students from various cultures in both Allentown and Easton, PA, and tutored a French Canadian missionary, Brother Pierre Ferland, who went on to bravely run a school for black students for many years during Apartheid in South Africa.

She sang and played violin beautifully throughout her life, including teaching beginning Suzuki violin to numerous students in her adult years. Her caring, patient attitude left an impact, including on one student who still called Gale frequently until a year or two ago to ask Gale’s help in tuning her violin over the phone, as Gale had perfect pitch. Gale also followed in her grandmother’s and aunt’s footsteps by leading a handbell choir at church and at home for many years, and the family still continues to play the bells at special occasions.

Above all, Gale’s life was focused on family, and when they were all young adults, her sister Jane and brother-in-law Ken built their home and raised their family 2 miles away from Gale and Al. This led to a wonderful family-centered life for Gale, her sister, and their kids and grandkids. She loved all of her family dearly, including the relatives close by in Pennsylvania, but also her farther-flung family in New York state, Colorado, and California.

Ever the caregiver, along with her two siblings, Gale helped care for her aging parents for many years. She then also cared for her husband for over twenty years late in life while he had dementia, so he was able to continue to live at home with her. Thankfully, he seemed mostly content throughout even this part of his life until his passing in his late 80s.

Gale also helped support her older son and his wife, and soon after their son/her youngest grandchild, for the final decade of her life. They moved back home for support, and in turn helped to care for Gale and her husband, especially in the last few years as her Parkinsons symptoms became more pronounced. This enabled her to continue to live at home, and to have family including one of her grandsons in her midst, which brought joy to all.

Gale is survived by her sons Matthew Siess and Daniel Siess Lilkas-Rain, daughters-in-law Candice Siess and Kristen Lilkas, and grandchildren Caden Rain, Alyra Rain, Willow Lilkas-Morse and Zachary Siess. She is also survived by her sister and brother-in-law Jane and Ken Checkeye, brother and sister-in-law Addison Scholes, Jr. and Mercy Scholes; by her sister-in-law Audrey Erbes; by her nephews and nieces Jonathan and Meg Wells, Ben and Kim Checkeye, Andy Checkeye, Erica and Nate Shorb, and Wes and Roshelle Checkeye; and by nine grand nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents, and her husband Al.

A memorial will be held in the spring, details TBA. Donations in lieu of flowers are requested in Gale’s memory to Communities in Schools of Eastern PA.

Wanderer’s Nightsong II

By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe;

(translated into English by John Whaley)

Over all of the hills

Peace comes anew,

The woodland stills

All through;

The birds make no sound on the bough.

Wait a while,

Soon now

Peace comes to you.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Carrying On - A Love Poem for Our Sweet Mom/Gale/Oma/Grandma By Dan Siess Lilkas-Rain

How to summarize an earthly life?

The depth of a mother/grandmother/sister/wife’s heart; love translated into a held hand, a lingering hug

a cheerful phone call, a letter as work of art?

Your caring, cooking, smiling and worrying for us, your kindness and song, your unfathomable patience…

be inspired and carry on your example we must.

A sustained note is never going to be long enough, the raised glass not sufficiently effervescent, our forest walk must return to the door before ample time,

and pen to paper will have to remain a draft too rough.

But whenever I choose an act of kindness or love,

or to listen with patience, to try to understand,

Whenever I face my doubts with bravery beyond what I feel, or to work to make the world a bit more beautiful,

I know you are there with me.

Thank you for all your gifts!

We love you