Rebecca Feldsher Notterman, MD, FAAP passed away peacefully on Saturday, February 11, 2023, in the home she had lived in for the past 90 years. Dr. Knotterman, who had raised his four-generation family in central New Jersey as a wife, sister, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and pediatrician, moved with his parents and sisters Janet and Esther to East his Windsortown in 1933. Moved to Ship’s Farm (High View Manor). A graduate of Heightstown High School, Becky (called Ray by her family and childhood friends) attended college at New York University and attended nursing school at the Bellevue School of Nursing. After obtaining her BSN, she decided to prepare for her medical school and eventually enrolled in New York University School of Medicine (her one of three women in her class). and she received her medical doctorate in 1953. Dr. Knotterman, who received her doctorate in outpatient pediatrics from New York Hospital Cornell Medical School, returned to the Heightstown area in 1955 to establish her private pediatric practice. She was one of the first women to practice pediatrics in Mercer County. After serving her family, she retired. She entered pediatrics at a time when house calls were a daily feature of medical practice, and she made a difference in the homes of the poor and the wealthy, the long-established and the recent immigrants, people of all races and ethnicities. Often there is no payment other than the parents’ relief and a hug from the child. She served as a clinical professor of pediatrics at Cornell Medical College until her retirement and has worked with hundreds of pediatricians, including many local and Rutgers Robert Her Woods pediatricians who continue to serve at her Johnson College of Medicine. Contributed to education.
Becky and her husband Joseph (who passed away in 2013) returned to their beloved farm in 1956 and have all kinds of animals, from horses to llamas, rabbits to peacocks. They created a home and grounds of rare beauty and were happy to share their creations with Heightstown (including Army C), Princeton, and many friends around the world.
Today, the farm, named Abe’s Acres after Rebecca’s father, is still run by her grandson Gabriel. In addition, Rebecca is survived by his children, Daniel, a pediatrician and Princeton University professor, and Abby, a lawyer and bioethicist. Her grandson, Ariel, is a teacher and curriculum his consultant. Benjamin, a civil rights attorney; Sophia, a PhD candidate in clinical psychology. and, by her great-grandson, Jonas, the fourth generation living in the family homestead.
Donations in memory of Dr. Notterman can be sent to Save the Children (www.savethechildren.org) or All Access Mental Health (AAMH; www.aamh.org)
Funeral services were held at Glackin Chapel, 136 Morrison Avenue, Heightstown, New Jersey, under the direction of Simplicity Funeral and Cremation Services.
