Valentine Udell, 93; helped lead Montco summer camps

Valentine Udell, 93, of Perkiomenville, a teacher who helped direct summer camps in Montgomery County and was on the board of directors of the Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy, died of heart failure Jan. 20 at Pottstown Memorial Medical Center.

Jon Udell, a nephew, said that Mr. Udell was attracted to outdoor life as a Boy Scout in junior high school and then in summers as a counselor at Camp SGF.

A 1949 Inquirer report stated that the camp, named for its scoutmaster founder, Samuel G. Friedman, housed 130 low-income boys, two weeks at a time, in 15 cabins on 120 acres outside Phoenixville.

By then, the story reported, Mr. Udell was a science teacher at Frankford High School and director of the camp, run by the Vacation Bureau, an agency associated with the Federation of Jewish Charities.

Jon Udell said that Mr. Udell and his twin, Eugene, Jon's father, "had a long involvement with SGF."

In summers from 1954 to 1967, his nephew said, Mr. Udell was codirector of Camp Maribel near Collegeville. He was one of the three founders.

After his 1981 retirement, Mr. Udell was board president from 1983 to 1985 of Fellowship Farm, on a 120-acre site near Pottstown, which identifies itself as an education and retreat center "dedicated to leadership development and social change."

At the Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy, where he was on the board of directors from 1982 to 2001, Mr. Udell founded its botany section, and in 2009, he received its Friend of the Watershed Award for his years as a tour guide.

Born in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood of Philadelphia, Mr. Udell graduated as president of the class of 1934 at Simon Gratz High School.

On a scholarship in a five-year program that combined teacher education with the performing arts at Temple University, he earned his bachelor's degree in 1939.

After receiving a master's at Temple in 1940 and teaching public school in Philadelphia, he was commissioned as an aircraft observer in the Army Air Corps in 1943, and served for a time in Hawaii.

Before going to the military, his nephew said, Mr. Udell had scored highest in biology and sociology in examinations for scarce teaching jobs in Philadelphia.

After World War II, Mr. Udell taught science at Frankford High School until 1960.

His nephew said that Mr. Udell was in the audiovisual department at Temple, where Eugene Udell was director until Eugene was named dean of Temple's Ambler campus in 1963. Valentine then became audiovisual director.

Mr. Udell worked from 1966 until his 1981 retirement at DCA, a manufacturer of audiovisual equipment.

For the last 22 years, his nephew said, he was a volunteer at what is now Pottstown Memorial Medical Center.

Mr. Udell is survived by nephews and nieces.

A life celebration was set for 11:30 a.m. today at Fellowship Farm, 2488 Sanatoga Rd., Pottstown.