Robesonia has lost someone who was truly larger than life on 12/3/11.
Our thoughts and prayers go to the family of Lester Breininger who is now at rest after passing away at home in his beloved Taylor Mansion.
Lester was a man of extraordinary talents and abilities.Thank you Lester for sharing your knowledge with and being kind to us over the years.
You are greatly missed by us both.
The below article is from the Reading Eagle today:
Family members mourn renowned teacher, antique collector who died on Saturday, 12/3/11.
In a dining room adorned with 200-year-old Pennsylvania Dutch antiques, Barbara Breininger chatted Monday about her late husband's legacy.
Lester Breininger, 76, a renowned antique collector, teacher and potter, died Saturday in his Robesonia home. He had been under hospice care for complications due to Alzheimer's disease, family members said.
"Lester's spirit lives on in the things he's preserved and the lives of the people he touched," said Barbara, 76, his wife of 54 years.
Over more than six decades, Lester amassed one of the largest collections of Berks County antiques and artifacts ever assembled.
The collection, much of which reflected the county's German roots, filled the family's 20-room Victorian mansion. The Breiningers lived in the house, built by iron foundry magnate George Taylor in 1886, for 51 years.
Much of the Breininger collection was recently sold in a two-day auction at Pook & Pook gallery in Downingtown, Chester County.
Born in Tilden Township, Lester was the son of Lester and Mamie (Hunsicker) Breininger of Shartlesville.
He graduated from Hamburg High School and attended Kutztown University, where he earned a degree in science in 1957.
Lester and Barbara were married in 1957, the year she graduated from the Reading Hospital School of Nursing.
A teacher by profession, Lester taught biology in the Conrad Weiser School District for 33 years before retiring in 1991.
"We had a wonderful life together," Barbara said.
The Breiningers achieved national recognition for their redware pottery decorated with tulips, distelfink and other Pennsylvania Dutch motifs.
Their annual front porch sale of pottery, made in an outbuilding on the property, drew collectors from around the country. The 42nd, and last, porch sale was held in August.
Lisa Randolph, the Breiningers' daughter, marveled at her father's many interests.
"He was a teacher, a potter, an antique collector and a patriot," said Randolph, 50, of Washington. "All those things were deeply ingrained in him."
After her husband died, Barbara got out his red-and-white Patriotic Order Sons of America sash and placed it on the dining room table. Lester was a former state and national president of the order. POSofA Bernville Camp No. 113 met in the Robesonia Foundry paymaster's building on the Breiningers' property.
Scott Shultz, who followed Lester as POSofA state president, said the order is planning a memorial service for Lester. A Conrad Weiser teacher and a former student of Lester's, Shultz hopes to have the service at Conrad Weiser Middle School, where Lester once taught.
"He was very proud when one of his students became a teacher," said Shultz, 55, a former Conrad Weiser athletic director.
The Breininger family said there will be no funeral service because Lester's body has been donated to science.
