Elaine Achber Pfeiffer

Longtime Scarsdale resident and former Associate Editor of the Scarsdale Inquirer, Elaine A. Pfeiffer, died of complications of the coronavirus on April 30, 2020. She was 88 years old. Mrs. Pfeiffer was born on April 9, 1932 in Tilton, New Hampshire, where she enjoyed New England small-town life, often helping out at her family's well-respected department store. She attended Colby Junior College (now Colby-Sawyer) in New London, NH, moving on to graduate with a bachelor's degree in Communications and Music from Syracuse University. She married Norman C. Pfeiffer in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1954. After Dr. Pfeiffer's military (USN) service in California, the couple moved to New York State and settled first in the Bronx, then Middletown and Niskayuna. They moved to Scarsdale in 1968. There, Mrs. Pfeiffer was active in many Village and area organizations, including the League of Women Voters, the PTA, and the Westchester Choral Society. She was a talented pianist, with a lifelong love of reading, music, theater, art and dance. She and her husband were subscribers to the New York City Ballet from the time of its founding and were also longtime supporters of the Westchester Philharmonic and the Westchester Chamber Music Society. After the move to Scarsdale, Mrs. Pfeiffer took advantage of the proximity to New York City to introduce her children, and later, her grandchildren, to all the cultural attractions the city had to offer. Mrs. Pfeiffer loved to travel and was a member of one of the first groups to go overseas with Lillian Carter's Friendship Force, a travel exchange program which sent her to Denmark, where she made lifelong friends. She was a lovely, warm, caring person, with an easy laugh, and a wonderfully natural smile, one that seemed to move around a room after she shared it -- which was often. She spoke ill of no one. Mrs. Pfeiffer is survived by her husband, Norman C. Pfeiffer; her children, Karen Pfeiffer (Owen) Jones of Rochester and Robert Pfeiffer of Scarsdale; her grandchildren, Andrew Jones of New York City and Alexander Jones of Rochester; her sister-in-law, Carole D'Andria of Allentown, PA; her nephew, David Pfeiffer of London, Ontario and his wife, Debra; and her nieces, Julie (Kevin) Jordan of London, Ontario and Errin (James) Bligh of Vancouver. A memorial service will be held at a future date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions in her memory be made to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), through LLS.org, or any of the organizations above.