LACONIA ---- Sandra Eakins Preiswerk, 77, of the Taylor Community passed away at the Granite VNA Hospice House in Concord, NH Saturday, January 7, 2023.
Sandra was born in Philadelphia, PA, and raised in Birmingham, Michigan, where she attended public schools and then Kingswood School Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, MI. She received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) in 1967.
Her first job was as a chemist for DuPont in Wilmington, DE. It amused her to be assigned to a team working on a product to ameliorate bad breath in dogs. While at DuPont, she met and married fellow chemist Martin Preiswerk, a Swiss citizen. Sandra lived with her husband in Basel, Switzerland, for seven years before divorcing. She then worked with an antique engravings dealer in Basel for a decade more before returning to the United States, where she lived for 25 years on Governor’s Island in Lake Winnipesaukee in the Town of Gilford.
In Gilford, Sandra became an entrepreneurial antiques dealer and a practicing ceramic artist known for the increasingly refined shapes of her pots and her deft use of glazes. She supported classical-music performances in the Lakes Region and became an avid gardener with a special interest in shade-loving woodland plants.
In 2015 she began living in The Taylor Community in Laconia, NH, where she enjoyed watching the birds and beasts that visited her back yard. She died of metastasized lung cancer, having survived her parents, Jesse Walter Eakins and Stena Marie Eakins. She is survived by her sister, Patricia Eakins, and her brother-in-law, Peter Martin, of New York City.
Burial will take place on Monday, June 12, 2023 at 11:00am at Pine Grove Cemetery, Belknap Mountain Road, Gilford, NH.
A Memorial Cello Concert to celebrate her life and honor her passing will be held on Saturday, June 10, 2023 at 2:00 P.M. at the Woodside Building of the Taylor Community, 227 Ledges Drive, Laconia, NH. The concert is free and public, though pre-registration is appreciated. Please pre-register with Brenda Kean at [email protected].
As a further memorial to Sandra, voluntary contributions will be collected for the Granite VNA Hospice House, 240 Pleasant Street, Concord, NH 03301.
Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services and 603Cremations.com, 164 Pleasant Street, Laconia, NH, is assisting the family with arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial, please visit www.wilkinsonbeane.com.