Obituary of Ada Santiago Montare Ada Alicia Santiago Montare, 87, proud mother, grandmother, community advocate and feminist, died at home in Millbrook, New York on September 15, 2018. Ada was born on April 14, 1931, to Concepción Pagán and Eugenio Santiago at home on the family farm near Peñuelas, Puerto Rico. She was the first female in her family to graduate from college, receiving her undergraduate degree in Sociology from Rutgers University in 1976, after enrolling her youngest child in school full-time.
When she was eight years old, Ada’s family sold the farm they had owned for more than five centuries. Soon after, she moved to Guayanilla with her mother and two brothers, and enrolled in the local school where she earned top honors for academic excellence. Because her family would not support her plans to attend the University of Puerto Rico to study engineering, Ada moved to New York City in 1948, to the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
There she met her former husband, Alberto Montare, whom she married in 1953. After Alberto accepted a teaching position at Rutgers University, they moved with their three children to Highland Park, New Jersey in 1972. Upon graduation from Rutgers, Ada went to work for the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate, which had been formed just two years earlier to make government more accountable and responsive to the needs of New Jersey residents, especially the most vulnerable.
In 1979, Ada became a Conciliator in the Northeastern Region of the United States Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service (CRS), established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to provide federal mediators in areas of community conflict. Her notable cases include the Love Canal hazardous waste disaster and the Shinnecock Indian Reservation tribal land dispute in Southampton, New York. An active member of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, Ada served as a mentor to the next generation of conflict resolvers and community advocates.
In 1984, Ada was assigned to the Western Regional Office of CRS in San Francisco, California to continue work on tribal land disputes and serve as a “peacemaker” in minority communities throughout the region. Following the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989, Ada moved to Philadelphia to work in the Mid-Atlantic Region of CRS, and finally to New York City to rejoin the Northeastern Region, where she worked until she retired from the service in 2001. She received the Milton D. Lewis Award for Dedicated Service Advancing Human and Civil Rights in 2000, and a Special Recognition Award from the U.S. Department of Justice “for her leadership in addressing racial issues for more than 22 years” in 2001.
Ada is survived by her brother, Eduardo Santiago; children, Alex Montare (Dawn), Adrienne Montare (Tom Savory), and Ariadne Montare; grandchildren, Aran and Vera Montare Savory, Aidan and Leah Montare, and Giulia and Thomas de Gennaro; and six nieces and nephews. The family plans a quiet service to celebrate Ada’s life in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico during the Christmas holidays. Arrangements are under the direction of Burnett & White Funeral Homes 91 E. Market St., Rhinebeck, NY.
For directions, or to sign the online guest book, please visit www. Burnett-White.com.
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