Dr. Carl W. Gardiner Jr., 74, died on Friday, March 17 in Jupiter, Florida. He was born on September 4, 1942 in Orange and grew up in Short Hills, where he attended Millburn High School. He graduated from Lafayette College, where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. He served in the United States Navy from 1968 to 1970, achieving the rank of lieutenant commander.
Dr. Gardiner practiced Oral and Maxillo-Facial Surgery in Red Bank for 40 years. He completed his residency at New York University/Bellevue Hospital, where he was chief resident. He was on the teaching staff at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch and on staff at Riverview Hospital in Red Bank. He loved caring for his patients; in the evening, he would call to check in on each one he had seen that day.
He was an active member of his communities. Carl served as police commissioner and president of the Town Council of Shrewsbury. He was an active member at Christ Church Shrewsbury, including serving as senior warden for many years. He was also president of the board of The Rumson Country Club and an active member of the New Jersey Seniors Golf Association.
Throughout his life, he loved boating and the beach, painting portraits of his family and friends, and, above all else, playing golf. He retired to Florida in 2013, where he took up bridge and enjoyed his days swimming in the ocean, reading in the sun, grilling and eating home-cooked meals, and, of course, playing golf. He was a generous friend to many, who will remember him for his humility and kindness, an easy demeanor and a great capacity for fun.
He is survived by his beloved wife of 54 years, Janet Taylor Gardiner; and his three children, Sara and her husband Michael Parmelee of Highlands, Carl and his wife Polly Riemenschneider of New Canaan, Connecticut, and Lee and her husband Alec Koch of Washington, D.C. In small, manageable doses, he delighted in his six grandsons: Kyle Frechette, whose father Kevin remains beloved in our memory, Sam, Hugh and Auggie Gardiner and Eliot and Henry Koch. He is also survived by his two adoring sisters, Pamela Machado and Ann Drake.
Memorial services will be held on April 18 at Saint Georges-by-the-River, 7 Lincoln Ave., Rumson, at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made in his name to the Lustgarten Foundation at www.lustgarten.org.
