Ruth Carolyn Klump was born in Easton, PA on July 11, 1930 to Theodore Frederick Hoppe and Ruth Caroline (Gillen) Hoppe. She passed peacefully following a lengthy period of Parkinson’s Disease and related illness on April 28, 2025 at the extraordinary age of 94.
Known as Carolyn, she was ahead of her time in many ways. She attended NYU at just 16 years old, class of 1951, where she earned a teaching degree, though she would have preferred to follow in her father’s footsteps as an engineer or architect which was not a woman’s field at the time. She taught elementary school in Bayville, NJ for decades, earning recognition as New Jersey Teacher of the Year. She received her Master’s Degree from Georgian Court, and also volunteered as an adult literacy tutor. Carolyn and her late husband, Robert Wesley Klump, were very active in the Beachwood Yacht Club. She had been President of the Ladies’ Auxiliary and wrote a brief history of BYC.
She was a member of the Barnegat Bay Yacht Racing Association, and enjoyed watching her children and grandchildren in their sailing races. Her love of the Barnegat Bay arose from carefree childhood summers living with her brother and their grandmother in Seaside Park, even in the midst of the Great Depression.
Carolyn’s creativity was evident throughout her life. One of her passions late in life was painting, including floral still life and faux finish painting. She was a voracious reader, especially historical nonfiction and sci-fi. She loved participating in building, designing and decorating her various homes, and designing/maintaining her gardens. She described her gardens as “carefully haphazard,” especially utilizing native plants. She loved to cultivate orchids. Carolyn attended Trinity Episcopal Church in Red Bank.
She will be remembered as a strong, caring, creative woman with a deep intellect and a love of art and nature, a loyal wife, mother and friend. She is survived by her brother, Frederick Hoppe of Lead Hill, Arkansas, her son, Christopher Klump of Vienna, MD and daughter, Jennifer McFadden of Long Branch, NJ, and granddaughters Leah Klump and Margaret McFadden.
A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, May 3rd at 2 pm at Trinity Episcopal Church, 65 W Front St, Red Bank, NJ 07701.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Jesse Klump Memorial Fund Scholarship and Suicide Prevention: https://jessespaddle.org/. Thompson Memorial Home of Red Bank, NJ has been entrusted with the arrangements.
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