Obituary published on Legacy.com by Hamel-Lydon Chapel & Cremation Service of Massachusetts on Feb. 8, 2026.
Anne Raeder Mendler was born in Boston on May 5, 1930. She was born on her mother’s birthday. Anne grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts in a very old house, where the original owner would rent out a room or two to colonial travelers.
Her father, Dr. Oscar Raeder, was a professor at Boston University, taught at Harvard Medical School, held a private psychiatric practice, and was the Director of the Southard Clinic and the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, now known as the Massachusetts Mental Health Center. Her mother, Mildred Woodsum Raeder, earned a Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Iowa, and met her husband while working for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Anne attended the Dexter Elementary School and then Dedham High School. In 1940, her mother bought a farm in Stratham, New Hampshire, which she operated as a dairy in her contribution to the war effort. In 1942, the family relocated to the farm, while her father continued to teach and practice medicine in Boston.
Farming was an all-new experience for the family, and Anne often recalled that some of her happiest years were those on the farm. There were large dairy cow and horse barns, and a beautiful large house facing the street, built in the late 1700s. Because of the war, gasoline was in short supply and not available for the farm tractors. Anne’s mother bought two large Belgian work horses from the Barnum & Bailey Circus to pull the farm equipment, and a riding horse named Silver for Anne.
Anne attended Radcliffe College, where she studied psychology and French. Following herJunior year she attended the Sorbonne in Paris, and then worked at the American Hospital in Neuilly, France.
In 1953, she wed Edward Charles Mendler, Jr., a graduate of Harvard law School. The wedding was held in the Appleton Chapel at Memorial Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The young couple had three children Janot Reine Mendler, Suzette Anne Mendler and Edward Charles Mendler III, born in 1955, 1956 and 1957. The young family lived in Wayland, Massachusetts, in a contemporary house of her husband Edward’s design.
After an exceptionally happy beginning, the couple divorced in the late1960s. Anne then worked in an architectural firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although offered a promotion and a raise she decided instead to leave Boston and start anew in California. Anne returned to Massachusetts in 1992. Most recently, Anne was residing at Sudbury Pines Extended Care, where her daughter Janot was a wonderful and loving companion.
Anne leaves behind her daughters Janot Mendler de Suarez of Wayland, Massachusetts and Suzette Alibazaire of Jackson, Wyoming, and son (Edward) Charles and Sandy Mendler of Mill Valley, California; two Grandchildren of her daughter Janot, Bahiyyih Comeau of Maine and Mehdi Comeau of Amsterdam in the Netherlands; two Grandchildren of Charles and Sandy, Bridgit Mendler and her husband Griffin Cleverly of California, and Nicholas Mendler of California; and one great-grandchild, Levi Cleverly of Bridgit and Griffen.
