Helen Linda Mahler, beloved wife, mother and grandmother, known to all as Linda, died peacefully at home in Stockton March 14, 2025. She was 73.
Linda was born Jan. 5, 1952, in Long Branch to Harry and Helen Mahler. Her childhood in Highlands was spent on the beach and in the ocean. She graduated from Mater Dei High School in the New Monmouth area of Middletown, where she was captain of the cheerleading squad, homecoming queen, sang in a folk band, and appeared on stage in a production of “The King and I.”
After graduating from Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey) with an English degree, Linda married and relocated to New Hope, Pennsylvania, where she raised two children, Katie and Mike. She worked briefly as a teacher at New Hope-Solebury Elementary before she took a position at Princeton University as a college administrator, a job she loved and was loved in. She became known across campus for her warmth, humor and deep care for students. Linda was a second mom to many hundreds of students over the years, often inviting them to share holiday meals with her family.
The final chapter of her career was spent as a fundraiser in the office of Annual Giving, where she reconnected with some of the same students she knew from their freshman year, who were then adults making gifts to the university. For those efforts, she was made an honorary member of the Princeton University Class of 1993.
In 2003, Linda remarried to Edward (Ted) Champlin, a professor of classics at Princeton University. After some cajoling, she convinced him to move into what became their dream house in Stockton. There they spent many happy years entertaining old friends and new, building a community that often centered on their daily trips to Rojo’s coffee shop.
With Ted, she traveled the world, and with him, she was happy to return home; she loved the beauty and serenity of the rolling farmland around her. She also loved and was proud to be a part of the community she found in Lambertville; she delighted in bumping into friends on the towpath or on the street.
Linda was famous among her friends and family for her tomatoes, her love of the Philadelphia Phillies and Eagles, her love of reading, and her cooking. Her cosmopolitan cocktails were incomparable, and she was known to deliver them to the door of friends in need. “They contain Vitamin C,” she often said.
Her 70th birthday present to herself – a rare extravagance in the form of a convertible Mini Cooper in a color called “Zesty Yellow” – was known to turn heads and bring smiles around town.
Linda was a fearless survivor of breast cancer for 21 years. She kept journals of her medical journey – great piles of notes about her treatment history – and she shared her story online, building a community on social media. Her final years were spent caring for her beloved husband, who suffered from Alzheimer’s and predeceased her by two months.
In the face of these hardships, Linda was naturally kind, loving and funny. Elegant and beautiful, she had a rebellious spirit and was a proud feminist. She was a tireless advocate for democracy and equality. Most of all, she will be remembered for how she loved her family, for her easy warmth and boundless interest in the goings-on of her children and grandchildren, for the time she spent with them, which she cherished most of all, and for the legacy of quiet kindness she leaves in her absence. She died at home, her two loving children by her side.
Linda was predeceased by her parents, Helen and Harry, brothers Peter and Harry, and husband Ted.
Linda is survived by her daughter, Katie Loughran and son-in-law Joe Ujj of New Hope; son Mike Loughran and daughter-in-law Megan Johnson of Philadelphia; three grandchildren, Mimi and Eero Ujj of New Hope, and Hugo Loughran of Philadelphia; sister Dawn Stout of Rumson; niece Sarah Stout of Hoboken; and two stepsons, Alex Champlin of Toronto and James Champlin of Queensland, Australia.
For information about a celebration of life in memory of Linda and her husband Ted, please email her son, Mike Loughran, at michaeljamesloughran@gmail.com.
Donations in Linda’s honor may be made to Doctors Without Borders at doctorswithoutborders.org.
The article originally appeared in the April 24 – 30, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
