Henriette Abel Stackpole was so committed to her hometown of Elizabeth, N.J., that after earning her medical degree in dermatology she practiced medicine there for more than 50 years. She was known professionally as Dr. Henriette Abel and informally as Cookie.
“Cookie was a warm, energetic, outgoing person with a strong work ethic who was deeply committed to her family, her patients, and her community in Elizabeth,” her family said.
Dr. Abel, who had a summer home in Amagansett, died on March 3 at Huntington Common in Kennebunk, Me. She was 87.
Born in Elizabeth to Henri Abel and Alice Gibb Abel, both physicians, she attended Battin High School there, graduated from Vassar College, and received her medical degree from Cornell University Medical College. She completed her internship at Lenox Hill Hospital and her residency at New York Hospital.
In addition to her private practice, which she shared with her father and two of her siblings, Dr. Abel was a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Cornell and an attending physician at Elizabeth General Hospital/Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth.
She married Robert Stackpole in September of 1957. She valued their marriage profoundly, and together they raised four children. Her husband died in 2018.
“Cookie wanted to stay close to her family and foster a warm relationship for her children with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins,” said her family. “The extended family was very close and always provided help and support to each other.”
Dr. Abel and her husband enjoyed travel, especially to Europe, and shared an interest in European and American history and culture. She was an enthusiastic tennis player and made many lifelong friends through the sport.
Among her favorite memories were funny family stories from her childhood, family vacations driving across the country in a station wagon with her husband and four daughters, and, most of all, time spent with family and friends at their house on Bluff Road in Amagansett.
“She will be remembered by all who knew her for her remarkable strength, her ready smile, and her lively sense of humor,” her family said.
Her daughters, Sarah of New York City, Betsy of Chicago, Jane of Newton, Mass., and Alice of Kennebunk, survive, as do three sisters, Alice, Louise, and Ernestine, and six grandchildren, Serena, Christian, Robert, Charlotte, Will, and Brooke. One grandson, Drew, died before her.
A private memorial will be held at a later date. Memorial contributions have been suggested to the Amagansett Village Improvement Society, P.O. Box 611, Amagansett 11930, or Trinitas Regional Medical Center, P.O. Box 259, Elizabeth, N.J. 07207.
The family would like to extend its gratitude to the staff at Huntington Common and Northern Light Home Care and Hospice for their kindness and loving care during Dr. Abel’s final year of life.
